Outcast
by deadghost
Summary: Torn from her powerful position, Yomi is framed for an attack that leaves thousands dead. Now she must travel across a dark and unforgiving galaxy with a hyperactive fighter pilot and freelancer crew at her side. Will she find justice or fall to her doom?
1. Intro

Outcast

(A/N) This is my first Azumanga fic. I gave Sakaki and Kagura second names because they aren't given any in the anime and I'll be damned before I admit that those are their family names. Also, as I was writing this and it's following chapters I noticed that keeping the characters in character got pretty hard, especially Osaka, who is playing a very different role in this than in the anime. If you have any advice or comments I'd be more than glad to hear them.

Now, on with the story ...

The year is 3608, man has lived in space for hundreds of years now. Reaching far from their own solar system to conquer the stars. Hundreds of planets have been terraformed and colonised, many billions of humans now occupied the galaxy. Space travel was common and the base of the economy. Nearly a thousand years back, the Federation had been born. One single government that ruled over all lawful humans. There were still pirates and crooks that lived in and around the outskirts of Federation space. But as long as people stayed within the secure boarders of Federation space, you were unlikely to run into any of them.

Captain Sakaki Ishikawa looked out the bridge window. Her ship had just fallen out of warp and was rapidly approaching the AC – 3 Space Station. The yellow sun cast hard shadows across the massive structure several dozen kilometres ahead of Sakaki's ship, the _Neko-Koneko. _Sakaki was wearing a captains coat over her normal cloths: dark jeans and a tight black shirt with army boots. The captains coat was a black leather trench coat that reach her knees, it had a few medals on it that had been passed down to Sakaki by her father.

The station resembled a massive diamond with three large disks around it connected by thick bridges. The hard blue metal of the station reflected the light of the sun. The station was huge, but it was dwarfed by the planet behind it, that it orbited. A large ice planet with ice caps that left only a narrow band around the equator bare of ice. One of the many planets that where in the process of climate conditioning to make it more habitable by humans.

Sakaki was heading for the docking bay near the bottom of the station. As she approached, a female voice buzzed over the radio.

"This is Space Station CS – 3. Please provide identification immediately." The voice said firmly but non-threateningly.

Sakaki sat in her chair and typed a few buttons on the console next to her. After a few seconds the voice replied. "Thank you Neko-Koneko. Please proceed to docking bay 47-B".

Sakaki took the controls in her hands and pushed forward. The ship dipped and Sakaki felt her internal organs shift as the ship's artificial gravity altered. She sat back in her old chair and took in the view before her. The planet took up more and more of the view as the long ship approached the station.

Meanwhile, deep inside the engine room at the other end of the ship.

Ayumu Kasuga inhaled the stale air, the stench of lubricants and and metal filled her nostrils. The normally spacey and oblivious girl was in her element in the engine room. Pipes, tubes, screens and consoles were everywhere, anyone attempting to do anything in this three floor tall room wouldn't know where to start were it not for the training they would have undergone for years.

Ayumu had found her calling when she was very young. She had been born in a small town on a backwater planet who's main feature was the space ship graveyard. Ayumu had spent her childhood exploring the gutted corpses of the once proud vessels. Only when she was accepted into the Federation School of Engineering, did she finally get to explore the massive engines of battleships and mother-ships.

The girl, who had failed in almost all of her other subjects and only barely passed the vital subjects, had excelled in engineering, earning herself a bachelor's degree. Not bad for a girl who had been born on a backwater planet and was considered to be less than intelligent by most who met her.

She examined a screen that gave a readout of the engine temperature and thrust. She checked things off in her head as she did a normal manual diagnostic of the ships systems. Her office was a platform above the complex system of pipes, machines and other hardware that made up the engine. Her desks were covered in small modules that she had salvaged off other ships or torn from her own ship to repair. She was wearing dark blue overalls with a pink shirt underneath, her black army boots completed the "Grease Monkey" look she wanted, although she very rarely came into contact with grease, the lubricate lines were about the only part of the ship that didn't need regular repair.

In her bedroom, near the middle of the ship, Chiyo Mihama was reading a magazine. Her job as Gunner wasn't needed at this moment, so she was taking it easy. She had the easiest job on the ship. She was only called to action when the ship came under attack or when they needed to resupply. Her job was usually only pressing a button or two and choosing what ammunition types to fire. Her second job: Supplies Officer, only came into effect when they were docked in a station or taking in cargo from the vast vacuum of space. She felt the shift in the ships gravity and began making her way to the bridge. Her attire was a simple skin tight body suit with a slightly looser top that reached just above her knees on the back and just past her waist on the front. Her suit had soles on the bottom to act as shoes.

She tapped a button next the door and it slid open. She walked along the grated metal floor. The narrow hallway was lined with dirty metal walls, the ship was old and had been through many owners since it's glory days. She reached the staircase and leaped up it, another short walk and she came into the bridge. She was greeted by a marvellous view of the planet and station. The big windows at the front of the bridge gave a good 180 degree view of everything ahead of the ship.

"Hi Sakaki" Chiyo said in her usual high pitched tone. Sakaki looked round and smiled. Chiyo sat down in her seat next to Sakaki's. They both looked out the forward window, only a few kilometres left until the station took control. "I'll be resupplying here, I've got the usual list, do you want anything special?"

Sakaki shook her head, "No, thank you. I've got everything I need" Sakaki said, in her soft, almost angelic voice. Sakaki gripped the controls again and gently pulled them towards her, the ships nose lifted and headed towards a large tunnel in the station, which had now completely taken over the forward view. As the ship entered the tunnel, there was a thud as the station took control of the vessel.

Sakaki released the controls as the station guided the ship towards it's dock. She pressed a button and spoke into her console, it sent a message down to Ayumu. "Cut the engines please Ayumu" Sakaki softly spoke. Ayumu pressed a button and pulled down a lever. The engines hummed for a second, then silence.

The _Neko-Koneko_ was guided through a complex network of tunnels until it reached a dead-end. Two gravity tethers fired out of the ceiling of the tunnel, they connected with the ship and held it in place. The end of the tunnel split into three sections and ground open. The tethers dragged the ship into the dock, next to a platform. The ship stopped next to the platform and three more tethers attached themselves to the ship. The door to the dock slowly closed itself and a light above it turned from red to green. Several more red lights above the platform turned green, indicating the atmosphere had been restored. The ship fell by several metres as gravity was restored, but the tethers quickly pulled it back into place.

Sakaki and Chiyo stood up and made their way to the exit. Ayumu was already on her way, just coming up the stairs. She joined the other two and they departed the ship. The ship door opened and the trio were greeted by a cold gush of air. It was sweet and crisp, much better than the recycled air they had been breathing for the last few weeks.

They took the lifts up to their housing level, they shared an apartment on this station and several other stations throughout Federation space. The apartment was small and bland, dark grey walls and similar carpeting. In one corner of the room was there kitchen, nothing special either, small refrigerator, stove and a bar counter. Two bedrooms, one for the Captain and one for Chiyo and Ayumu. Sakaki's room was better furnished the other's. Pictures of family and friends on the walls, a shelf of flight magazines and books. A few toy spaceships lay on the floor and some stuffed animals lay on her bed.

She collapsed onto her queen sized bed and lay there, taking in the cold air and the smell of the clean sheets. This was her favourite station, that's why she furnished it more than her crew mates. Chiyo and Ayumu had separate beds, the room was divided into their two halves; Ayumu had a few books and magazines on engineering, her desk was covered in broken pieces of equipment that she was investigating. Her side table had a picture of her home planet from orbit and picture of her with her family.

Chiyo's side was more tidy and organised. Her book shelf was loaded with books on chemistry, biology, zoology and numerous other sciences that the youngest crew member was fascinated in. She had been landed with the gunnery job because they needed someone to do it, not because she wanted to blow stuff up. Sakaki was the captain and Ayumu: the engineer. One day, once she had earned enough money, she would devote her life to learning.

Ayumu collapsed onto the couch in the living room and flicked on the holo-screen in front of her. She flipped through the channels while Chiyo investigated the kitchen behind her, she began boiling some water for coffee. The downside of the open-plan kitchen became apparent quickly, the sound of the kettle boiling the water blanked out the sound from the TV, much to Ayumu's annoyance.

That is how the trio of freelancers spent the rest of their evening .... Meanwhile, 5 million kilometres away, a large star ship was preparing for warp.

*

The massive, three kilometre long, Capital ship The _Hammer of Thor _glided through space like a ship through calm seas_. _It's captain, Koyomi Mizuhara, was known through out Federation space as being the youngest captain of a Capital ship ever. She had excelled in commanding large vessels, but failed when it came down to actually flying a ship of any size. She had impressed her superiors enough for them to give her control of the old, but still ferocious, _Hammer of Thor. _

Captain Mizuhara, known as Yomi to only her closest friends, was sitting in her captain's chair. It was higher than the rest of the bridge, allowing her to look down on her crew. In front of her sat her two pilots, lining the rest of the bridge were communications engineers and support staff. The whole crew of the vessel number nearly a thousand, all under the command of their captain.

The _Hammer_ was on it's way to patrol around a section of space that had suffered a large rise in pirate attacks. The presence of a capital ship should scare most of them away. Pirates rarely had anything above cruiser class, maybe a few battleships for the largest pirate groups, but were never seen in Federation space.

"Are we aligned?" Koyomi asked her lead pilot.

"Yes ma'am." the man replied after checking a coordinates read out on his holo-screen.

"Good. Initiate warp in three ... two ... one ... jump!" the captain ordered. On her last word, both pilots pulled a lever and the ship's engines glowed brightly and the Hammer was shot out into the inky blackness of space. From an outsider's point of view the ship would simply fire off into space, like a tracer bullet being fired into a night sky. But on board the vessel the crew was jerked back for a second. Everything outside was a blur, then a bubble seemed to form around them, the colours on the bubble resembled oil floating on water, swirling in a hallucinogenic way.

After only a few minutes of warp, the bubble collapsed and the ship fell out of warp, slowing down immensely quickly. The engines died for a second then returned to life and carried the ship forward., leaving a short trail of blue behind them. The light of the red sun in the local solar system cut hard shadows across the straight lines and sharp curves of the _Hammer. _ The cold blue of the ship reflected the light onto a nearby asteroid. The ship's shadow and the reflected light mixing.

"Captain, five hostile ships on scanners, two cruisers, two frigates and one fighter." one of the engineers said, a large hologram of the area flickered into life in front of Yomi, she could see her own ship, the band of asteroids and the five pirates.

"Get medium beam lasers on the cruisers, dispatch Fighter Team Alpha" the Captain ordered. The Hammer tipped down to give a clearer shot at the cruisers 25,000 kilometres away.

*

Down in the underbelly of the ship, Tomo Tankino was chatting with her fellow fighter pilots in the hanger. A red light began flashing and a speaker announced: "Fighter Team Alpha, prepare for combat!"

The small group jumped up and ran to their fighters. The small fighters were Merlin class, a common fighter, dangerous in inexperienced hands, lethal in trained ones. The 15 metre wide and 5 metre long ships were hooked onto the roof of the hanger, the pilots took lifts up to a catwalk that allowed them to jump right into the their seats. The flat fighters resembled bats with their wings spread, extremely agile and packing enough fire power to take on cruisers one on one. Their largest weakness was their poor armour rating. It's shields were good enough to hold out against other fighters, but anything larger than Medium grade projectiles would pose a deadly risk if they could get a good shot.

Tomo settled into her familiar cockpit and flicked a few switches. The black glass closed and sealed itself air tight. Tomo checked herself to see if she had forgotten anything. She noticed the picture of her and her best friend had fallen from it's place on her dash board, she picked it up and stuck I back up. It was her and "Captain" Yomi on a trip to Nirvana, the tropical paradise planet near the centre of the Federation.

But now was no time to delve into memories. She punched a command into the computer and three gravity tethers fired into her ship. Her Merlin unhooked from the roof and was carried away by the tethers. She was third in the line to the hanger bay.

She attacked her radio to her neck, a tight band that held a small transmitter against her voice box. She strapped herself in and put on her helmet. Gripping the familiar controls in front of her, she readied herself for battle. All her systems where A-OK, her four guns were powering up and her engines were warming.

Her squad leader came on the air, "Time to earn that pay check boys" he said in his deep, slightly cockney voice. Tomo gave a falsely male whoop in reply, the others made their own pre-battle noises. They were carried into a dead-end, the way behind them sealed itself and the way forward opened up. The gravity tethers pulled the ship along quickly and fired it out of the _Hammer. _All six Merlins fell from the belly of the ship like an ancient atmospheric plane dropping it's payload on a target.

Suddenly Tomo was in the emptiness of space. "Gah! Where am I?" Tomo panicked over the radio, "It's all dark and there's stars and stuff" she said, sounding genuinely scared.

"You make that joke every time we do this, Tankino. One day I'm just gonna shoot you down onto a planet myself, I swear!" he commander said. Tomo laughed, as did a few other fighters.

"Sorry, I just didn't think space would so vast and stuff. What about this? There's crack in the dilithium crystals, captain! I've got to have two hours to repair the sh..." Tomo yelled over her neck radio in a thick Scottish accent.

"Shut up!" her commander yelled, only to be greeted by Tomo's laughter.

"Sorry, boss. Let's 'av at 'em my son" Tomo impersonated her squad captain's cockney accent.

*

The _Hammer_ was approaching optimal range for it's lasers. The two cruisers had began approaching the _Hammer_, they had large missile bays and had fired several large warheads at them. "Missiles inbound, they appear to be Firefly warheads" another engineer said, a hologram appeared in front of Yomi.

"Threat level?" Yomi wasn't really worried, the shielding on her ship was strong enough to deflect anything those ships could throw at them.

"We can deflect the heat, but we aren't calibrated for the shock waves" the engineer replied.

"Lasers are within range, Captain. Permission to fire" another engineer asked.

"Permission granted" Yomi said firmly, knowing full well that those two words would end the lives of several people. Men and women with families, stories and dreams. Blown out into space, likely to never get a proper funeral or goodbye. Yomi forced these thoughts from her head, she had done this loads of times before, it was just like a game, you didn't think about them as real people just markers in a holo-gram that disappeared once she had uttered a few words.

The large laser on the top of the ship's bridge heated up and fired a long golden beam that directly hit the enemy cruiser. A blue, transparent bubble appeared around the ship, the beam was dissipated and bent around the bubble. The beam held it's target for a few seconds then the beam died.

"Their shields are down to twenty-five percent, Captain. They are calibrated for rockets not lasers, this shouldn't take long, Captain." an engineer reported.

"What's the position of the fighter team?" Yomi inquired.

"They should reach optimal range in about three minutes, Captain".

*

The squad leader of Tomo's group began dishing out targets to his men, "Our targets are the frigates and the fighter. Tankino and Jackson, you take the fighter, the rest of us will take down those frigates." he ordered.

"Righto boss" Tomo quickly replied. Tomo and Jackson broke off from the formation to chase the fighter that had zipped behind an asteroid. The sleek fighters sliced through space at five hundred metres a second. Tomo activated her targeting system that scanned ahead of her, a cross-hair jumping around her field of view until the fighter emerged from behind the asteroid.

The cross-hair attached itself to the ship and began bleeping as it tried to lock on. A clear tone indicated lock and Tomo squeezed the triggers in her controls. Several short, golden laser blasts fired from her guns and hit the fighter. It's shields flickered as they absorbed and distributed her shots across the bubble. Jackson released a volley that hit the ship too.

A read out on her console told Tomo that the enemy ship's shields were down to half.

The Hammer fired another long beam of golden death at the cruiser. This time it's shielding only lasted a second before the laser hit the hull, it glowed white then exploded, blasting the ship into two chunks spinning away from each other.

"The first cruiser is down, Captain." an engineer reported, "The second one appears to be turning it's attention towards the fighters".

Yomi sat up, her back rigid. "Those missiles could destroy a fighter's shielding in just two hits." she thought, fearing for Tomo's safety. "Quickly, full charge high lasers on that cruiser" she ordered.

The ship banked sharply to give it's side mounted laser a clear shot. The double barrelled laser heated up and fired at full strength. Two white beams hit the cruiser. The shielding didn't even try to hold out this time, the ship was blown into many smaller pieces spinning away into space, a large explosion burst from the lump of melting metal as it's reactor overloaded. But before it's death, the cruiser launched three missiles, they shot away from the cruiser. Two escaped before the cruiser burst, the third missile was consumed in the blast and detonated.

The two surviving missiles shot after their target, one of two fighters chasing another fighter.

*

Tomo's screen suddenly began flashing red and beeping loudly. The words "MISSILE LOCK" flashing in her face made it very obvious to Tomo. She pulled up and barrelled around, the missiles followed. Tomo pushed her fighter at top speeds towards to an asteroid, the missiles were gaining ground quickly but Tomo had a plan.

The asteroid was filling Tomo's view quickly as she rocketed towards it. Her computer was complaining abut the rapidly approaching rock, but Tomo ignored it. Her eye was on the distance read out. The rock was only one kilometre away now, she pulled back on her controls as hard as she could, her ship made a damn near ninety degree turn, pulling up just in time. Tomo skimmed across the surface of the massive asteroid, it's features just blur to Tomo.

The first missile couldn't compete with her agility and it collided with the asteroid, a large explosion flashed for a second then vanished, leaving only a black crater in the smooth, light grey rock face. The second missile, however, managed to pull up in time to avoid the rock. It rocketed forward and collided with it's target.

*

"A fighter has been hit" an engineer reported.

Yomi snapped to attention, "Who's was it?!" she demanded.

"Um..." the engineer was taken aback by his captain's sudden demand. "Tomo Tankino, number three. Her ship took heavy damage to the right wing but the pilot is still alive and life support is still working" he said quickly, trying to sooth his captain's nerves. No one on the bridge knew why Captain Mizuhara got so worked up about her fighters, she had kept her cool when they took a direct hit from battleship lasers, but as soon as a fighter got hurt she would get all jumpy.

"Bring up her vital signs on my screen" she ordered, the engineer punched in a few commands and Yomi's holo-screen was filled with a diagnostic on Tomo's ship and her life signs. Her ship blueprint was flashing red on the right wing, it was bringing up pieces of information that gave details on what had been broken and what was in danger of breaking.

*

Tomo was spinning, the missile blast had thrown her off balance and she was struggling to regain control. She got her ship to stop spinning, but she was still having trouble turning and her speed was limited to three hundred metres per second. Worst of all, the fighter she been chasing was closing in on her quickly.

She tried to return to the safety of her formation, but they were off dealing with the frigates.

"Where the hell are you Jackson!?" she yelled, her computer telling her the fighter had acquired lock on her.

"Sorry, Tankino. Son of a bitch is slippery. I'm on his tail but my computer won't lock" came his reply.

The enemy fighter fired two shots from his railguns, one missed but the other hit Tomo's already damaged wing, causing her to spin once more. Jackson couldn't blind fire or he'd risk hitting Tomo, but if he did nothing the pirate would surely kill her. Fortunately for him, his problem was solved when a volley of golden lasers peppered the pirate and created a fireball in his place. Jackson pulled up to avoid colliding with the debris.

"Wow, Tomo. You can't even handle one little fighter? Good thing I was here for you ... again" came the voice of the new fighter.

"What?! That first time was your fault to begin with, Kagura! If you hadn't dropped a Graviton Smart Bomb right next to me I wouldn't have had to dodge by flying into the targets of those pirates!!" Tomo yelled, trying to keep face to her friendly rival.

"Yeah sure. Why don't you limp back to the ship and I'll come see if you need someone to kiss your boo-boos" Kagura laughed, infuriating Tomo.

"I've got something for you to kiss you stupid bit..." Tomo began before being interrupted by their squad leader.

"Ladies, sort this out later, we are on a battlefield here and I need you to help me take down that last frigate!".

"Sorry, boss" Kagura replied, flying back to help gun down the last frigate who's reactor was already burning a hole in the hull.

Any advice or comments are more than welcome, please. I will try and maintain a high quality of work, but with no one to proof read it there might be a few mistakes here and there. Thanks for reading the first chapter, next one will be up soon.


	2. Framed

Framed

Sakaki awoke from her slumber. She checked her clock, it was eight in the morning. She got up and stretched. There was a shower attached to her room, a real shower, with real water. Sakaki missed showers the most when she spent many weeks in her ship which was only fitted with a sonic cleanser, no where near as relaxing or effective as good old soap and hot water.

Sakaki stripped down and stepped into the shower. She took her time with the shower, washing her long, dark hair thoroughly and enjoying every second of the warm water washing away the smell of industrial lubricants, sweat and dirt. Sakaki felt like she had shed a whole layer of skin once she washed away all the dirt.

After her long shower she got dressed in similar clothes to what she was wearing before. She put her Captains coat back on and left the apartment to the two sleeping girls.

She walked along a long, dull green corridor. The gentle hum of machinery ever present as she entered the lifts at the end. She went up to floor 300: The Contract floors. As a freelancer Sakaki needed a constant stream of work to keep and her crew mates fed. Luckily, she was known around here as a reliable captain and she had a regular agent who provided work most times she was here.

She approached a door and pushed the bell. He looked at the camera and smiled. Someone on the other side of the door recognised her and unlocked the door. The door opened to yet another hallway, she walked along it and turned into the office of her agent. He was talking on the phone but indicated for her to sit down.

She sat down and leaned back, legs crossed. The agent hung up and leaned towards Sakaki, grinning.

"Good to see you back here Miss. Ishikawa, but I'm afraid I can't offer you anything today or for the rest of the week likely." he explained. Sakaki, normally very good at controlling her emotions couldn't help but look disappointed. She really needed some money to repair her ship.

The agent picked up on her disappointment, he knew she needed the money to repair the Neko-Koneko, but he couldn't offer any work. "Look, I don't have anything for you, but if your willing to do a little work outside of the usual, I may be able to help." he offered.

Sakaki leaned forward, interested in his proposition.

"I have a friend on another station who could use some help with moving some tech, I know you don't have a massive cargo hold, but it's nothing like that, just a box of stuff that he really needs moved. I asked him to hold on to it so I could offer you the job" the agent escaped.

"That was nice of you, thank you" Sakaki said softly.

The agent held up his hands, "You're welcome. But he wants it moved as soon as possible, so if you could get there soon, if you aren't there in five hours he's going to offer the job to another captain. He's at the RA – 12 Station, so if you leave soon, you can get there in no time."

Sakaki didn't waste any time. She was out of his office and on her way back to her apartment in a minute. In her apartment, Chiyo had gotten up and was cooking a breakfast, Ayumu was still sleeping.

"Morning, Sakaki" Chiyo greeted in her happy voice.

The sound of her cute voice always calmed Sakaki down after whatever stressful situation she just been through, but now she didn't have time to calm down. She needed to move.

"Morning, Chiyo. Don't bother with breakfast, we have to go, now!" Sakaki said, emphasizing the _now._

"Why, what's going on?" Chiyo asked, worried that Sakaki had run into trouble.

"I got a contract but we need to get to the station in five hours or it's gone. Wake up Ayumu, will you?" Sakaki replied.

"Should we pack up our stuff?" Chiyo asked as she moved over to the the sleeping engineer.

"I don't think so, we won't be gone that long" The oldest of the trio told her. Chiyo shook the dozing engineer awake. She rolled over and squinted up at Chiyo.

"What's wrong, Chiyo? Is something happening?" she mumbled, still half asleep.

"Please, Ayumu, get up. We have to leave now. Just get up and come with us" Chiyo told her.

The engineer got to her feet but needed Chiyo to hold up and make sure we wouldn't wander off in her half sleep. Sakaki headed the group down to her waiting ship. She punched in a few commands of the console on the platform then jumped into the hovering _Neko-Koneko. _She sat in her seat, with Chiyo at her side and the dozing Ayumu lying in the gap between them. The way in front of them split into three section and separated.

The ship was carried through the long series of tunnels again and then thrown out into space. The ship was gliding along from the momentum of the gravity tethers, but the engines hadn't been turned on yet. Chiyo tapped the sleepy engineer on her head, she looked up and made a dopey smile.

"Ayumu, we need you down in engineering to make sure everything is ok with the engines" Chiyo told her.

Suddenly alert ... ish, Ayumu stood up, walked down the stairs and hallway to her lift. She took the lift down to the engine end of the ship. She checked all the parts that were likely to go wrong, it all looked fine. Ayumu relaxed again, letting out a long yawn, she settled down and listened to the engines hum into life and felt the cold room fill with warmth and that familiar smell of industrial grade lubricants. Unfortunately, in her tired state, she had forgotten to check the vital containment shell of the main engine line. Normally an easy flaw to fix and not a crippling one either, just as long you didn't push your engines too hard or try to warp anywhere.

Chiyo looked out the window and saw a Federation mother-ship, _Hammer of Thor_ drop out of warp. It was easily hundreds of times bigger than the Neko-Koneko, it's hanger alone could hold dozens of cruiser sized ships. "I bet Ayumu would pay her whole cut to be able to explore the engine room that" Chiyo thought, admiring the silent giant slowly moving towards the station.

Sakaki typed in the coordinates to the ship computer, she didn't have time to run a systems diagnostic, that would freeze them for half an hour while everything on the ship was searched for problems. The computer accepted the coordinates and aligned itself automatically.

Sakaki strapped herself in, as did Chiyo. She pulled down the heavy lever and felt the power of the engines grow in preparation for warp.

*

Tomo limped back to the _Hammer of Thor. _Her ship's engines were fighting off death with every metre, one had completely died and the other two were struggling to stay alight.

All the time Kagura's ship flew just off her port side, her laughter and mocking flooding the radio.

"The second I get out of this ship, I'll kill her with my own hands" echoed through Tomo's mind as she slowly closed the ten kilometre gap between her and the dreadnought. She manoeuvred into the hanger and was relieved when the gravity tethers took over.

They didn't take her back to where she boarded, but all the way down to the floor. Dumping the damaged fighter on the hanger floor. Tomo opened the glass top and fell the short gap to the floor. She was met by her squad leader, he looked angry, he usually did with Tomo.

"Nice going Tankino, you've wreaked another fighter. I'm sending you out in shuttle next time, then we'll see if you go looking for trouble with no guns or shields on you" he raved looking at the snarled metal that cut into a good portion of the ship.

"You aren't the only one who's annoyed here, boss. Look at that" Tomo pointed at the starboard side of her ship just under the cockpit. Vague words could be seen, mostly hidden behind black scorch marks. "They burnt my paint job off, it took me two hours to put that on".

"If you get your hands on another fighter, which I doubt, I'm not letting you spray "Tomo's Fighter, hands off, you wankers" on it again." her boss told her, pointing a strong finger at her.

"What's the problem? It was my ship and you let the others write stuff on theirs" Tomo complained.

"You wrote it on every ship!" he yelled at her, his face was getting red and his cockney accent getting stronger like it did every time he got mad.

Tomo waved her hand and said "Bah. I cleaned it off in the end, didn't I" she reasoned.

Her squad leader didn't bother replying, talking to Tomo for too long was a health hazard and he faced enough of them every day without her. He walked away, shaking his head. Tomo silently raised her arms and danced her dance of victory.

"I have no idea how the hell you are still on this ship and not dumped on some mining colony or just thrown out an airlock" Kagura said, announcing her presence to Tomo. Tomo spun around, fire in her eyes. She jumped on the taller woman, who was to standing with her arms folded and a smug grin on her face. Tomo caught her off guard, tackling her to the cold metallic ground. Kagura managed to get her leg up before she hit the ground, so now her knee rested between Tomo's legs. She pushed and managed to force Tomo off her. Kagura scrambled to her feet and got ready for Tomo's next attack. Tomo charged and Kagura caught her in head lock, but Tomo managed to drag Kagura down to a head lock too. Now they stood there, both locked in each others grip, unable to escape or force the other down.

They stayed locked like that for five minutes, by which time all the other Fighter pilots had either gone off to their quarters or were helping the engineers with maintenance of their Merlins. They had seen enough of Tomo and Kagura's fights to know they all ended the same way. They both still stood where they had been five minutes earlier, both exhausted from constant struggling.

Tomo was panting, "Call it a draw?" she asked.

Kagura knew she could go on for longer, but had more important things to do. "Fine". They released each other and went their separate ways. Tomo returned to her room, it was small, but nice. A small living room and a bedroom, her bedroom was decorated with pictures of her home planet, some ships she liked, but mostly of pictures of her and Yomi, her best friend for as long as she could remember.

There were ones from when they were little kids up to the day they graduated from university. That's where the two split in lifestyles. Tomo loved the fast paced life as a fighter pilot and applied at a military collage to become one. Yomi had gone on to became a captain of a battleship, when she proved herself to be an expert leader under strain they promoted her to Capital ship captain. When Tomo heard about this, she immediately applied to join Yomi's new crew. Needless to say, she got the job. Both Yomi and Tomo kept their relationship quiet to avoid people accusing them of favouritism or being a suck up. Captains didn't normally have close relationships with the lower crew. But it was undoubtedly why Tomo hadn't been transferred to another outfit by this point.

An announcement echoed through the ship, Captain Mizuhara had something to say, "Well done everyone. We will be going to warp in fifty minutes, arriving at station AC – 3 in about an hour. Salvage team please meet in Hanger Beta. All crew with shore passes please report to Crew Director Kruger before departing. Thank you."

Tomo stretched out on her bed and dozed there for a while. She liked Shore leave, it was the only time her and Yomi could just hang out as friends, while everyone else was on the station, they could talk in Yomi's room or on the bridge, a place where very few crew members were allowed. Tomo sat up, she went back to the hanger. She crawled back into her ship, which still lay where it had been dumped earlier. She fumbled around in the cockpit and found what she was looking for, a small, rectangular brick smaller than her palm. She took it back to her room and plugged it into her holo-screen. It presented a number of options, Tomo chose Mission Replay.

Her hologram was divided into nine screens, she tapped a number on her console and one of the screens expanded to fill the whole hologram. It was a recording from one of the numerous cameras on her ship. There were nine all together, one pointed at the pilot, one on top of each gun, one pointing ahead, one pointing back, one pointing up and the other pointing down.

Tomo could watch her fight from every angle and listen to her radio recording too. She skipped to about a minute before the missile hit her, she highlighted the back facing camera. She could her engine trail and things whizzing past, then a single bright light rapidly approaching. It hit and there was a flash and the screen went dead. Tomo watched the same scene from several different angles, she realized lucky she had been, if the missile had hit her centre, she would have undoubtedly lost life support and be very dead indeed.

"Better not show this to Yomi, she always so worried that I'm not going to come back one day, she should trust me more." she thought. She could understand her friend's worries, but that didn't mean she liked them. She felt the lurch of the ship going to warp, "She's gonna have an ear full for me when we meet up later".

The ship dropped out of warp and smoothly made it's way to the station. Capital ships were too large to dock with stations, they orbited them and sent their crew on with shuttles, small ships that could hold a dozen or so personnel. The ship fell into orbit around the colossal structure that dwarfed even the might _Hammer of Thor. _Slowly the ship was bled of it's crew, all of them taking their first shore leave in months.

Yomi and Tomo sat in the bridge, they were the only ones in that section of the ship. There were a few others still on board, a few dozen in engineering and some gunners. But one person was somewhere he shouldn't be.

He had smuggled a small box onto the ship, just another box in the hundreds of cubic metres in the cargo hold. He unlocked the small crate and pulled out a backpack. He slung it over his back and briskly left the cargo hold. He walked fast, not stopping or slowing for anything, following the path he had practised every time he got the opportunity.

He was sweating and his leg was bouncing as he stood on the lift taking him to the level he wanted. As soon as the door opened he was walking again, he was a man on a mission and nothing was going to slow him down. He finally reached his destination. He waited round the corner, peeping round to see if the virus he had injected into the ship's system had taken effect yet. A camera was rotating around the door way, it stopped moving and the man leapt into action.

He typed in a twelve digit password on the number pad. The door rolled away, revealing a sterile white corridor with another door on the other end. He quickly moved to the second door and pulled out a human hand from his backpack, it was grey and the fingers were going blue. He pressed the hand down on a pad next to the door. Another number pad appeared.

The intruder slid a key card into a slot and typed in another twelve digit password. The door opened and he stepped into the room. Two rows of black, monolithic structures filled the room. Freezing mist covered the floor and the intruder shivered as he was greeted by a gush of sub zero air. He checked his watch, his virus would only be active for another five minutes, then all the defences of the server room would come back online.

He pulled a laptop from the backpack, he found the server he was looking for and knelt down by it. He tore off the bottom cover and plugged in the laptop. He punched in a command and executed a program called "BRUTE FORCE". It churned out data and eventually access was granted.

He quickly found the final program he needed. His sweat was freezing in the cold air, but he was almost done. He checked his watch; three minutes left.

He typed in a command and was presented an option: EXECUTE Y/N?

His finger hovered over the Y key, he gulped and held his breath. He pushed the key.

He jumped up and ran out of the server room, leaving behind the arm, laptop and backpack. He sprinted through the ship, he had to travel half a kilometre in half an hour if he wanted to get out of there alive. Behind him, the doors sealed themselves and the defences cam back online, lasers and sentry guns that had been deactivated by his virus were reawakened. He flew down the corridors, pushed himself off walls to get round corners faster. He clawed at the walls trying to pull himself along as well as sprint. He finally reached the hanger, he checked his watch, he was behind schedule, he only had twenty minutes to get off the ship.

He saw his waiting shuttle and relief washed over him, he was going to make it. He was going to get his shuttle out of here and never return, he was going to be paid well for this. He jumped into the pilots seat and powered up. The gravity tethers lifted him up and carried his ship away.

*

" .... and then she said that it was the second time she had to save me, but the first time it was her fault that I needed saving in the first place" Tomo complained, while Yomi half heartedly listened.

"Whatever, Tomo." Yomi replied, not looking up from her magazine. There was silence for a second as Tomo thought of something to say that would bug Yomi. She leaned over and smiled a little.

So, how's the diet going"Tomo asked, it was an easy target, but one guaranteed to get results.

Yomi's hands clenched and her face hardened as the the words slipped from Tomo's mouth. "It's going fine" Yomi muttered, trying hard not to give Tomo what she wanted.

Tomo prodded Yomi side, "Yeah, I'm sure it is". Yomi was about to smack Tomo across the face when the ship lurched forward, taking both by surprise.

Yomi pulled up to her console and checked the switches and screens. "Who turned the engines on? I'm the only person who can that." Yomi thought out loud.

"Turn them off then before we get moved out of orbit" Tomo told her captain. Yomi pulled a lever, nothing happened. She pushed it back into place, but the ship continued to fly into empty space. "Get the station on the radio, something has definitely gone wrong".

Yomi pushed a button and tired to establish a line with the station. "All I'm getting is static", panic was rising in Yomi's voice, she couldn't control a three kilometre long and over a million metric tonnes of Dreadnought on her own. But the fear didn't truly set in until the ship turned to face the looming station.

Tomo's eyes grew large, her heart beat nearly stopped and her jaw collapsed. "Oh .... my .... fucking .... Yomi we have to get of here, now" Tomo stumbled out.

Yomi could see it too. Her body froze. She forced herself to shakily type in the evacuation order. A red light began flashing along with a high pitched drone and a computerized voice ordering all personnel to get the ship as fast as possible. The few dozen workers left of the vessel arrived in the hanger to take shuttles out, only to find that the bay was empty. All the shuttles were station side.

Yomi led Tomo to her private shuttle, separate from the other hanger. Tomo jumped into the pilot seat and began flipping switches. The gravity tethers carried them out to space. Yomi was in the co-pilot seat, her hands clutching her head, her face red with a mixture of emotions, fear she was going to lose her job or be thrown in prison, fear for the people in the station, sorrow for those who wouldn't make it. As much as she hated to admit it, she was glad that she and her best friend would survive.

In the hanger the crew were panicking, they could see the station rapidly approaching.

"What the hell is going on?"

"What is the captain doing?"

"Where are those god-damned shuttles, we need to get off this ship now!"

Kagura was among them. She was watching out the window, the station taking up more and more of her view. Then she saw a single shuttle escape the ship and fly away from the looming station.

"The captain is abandoning us? The captain is meant to go down with the ship!" Kagura nearly screamed.

A thought came to her, she could the use fighters to get off the _Hammer of Thor_. She ran to the military hanger, forsaking her fellow crewmen to their fates and punched in a few commands on the console. She climbed up and jumped into her ship. She ordered the tethers to take her out before she had even sealed the cockpit or done any safety check. It was agonisingly slow, she was bouncing her seat, praying to get off the ship faster. Finally she was released into the blackness.

She gunned her engines and got as far away from the ship as possible, it was going to be a big bang and the shock-wave could easily break her fragile ship apart if she was too close. She watched from her rear facing camera the ship slowly approaching the centre of the diamond shaped structure. She could see hundreds of ships exiting from hangers all over the station, thousands of people fleeing for their lives. She couldn't begin to imagine the panic those poor souls would be feeling as they struggled to find a ship.

The station defences had begun firing at the _Hammer of Thor. _The floating gun platforms had never been used on this station so deep inside Federation space and they had little effect on the ship's defences. Two long golden beams hit the ship and dissipated over it's shields, not that shooting the ship would help any, the momentum of the engines would carry the debris right into the station anyway.

Inside the bridge of the gigantic vessel, alarms were screaming, telling the missing crew that they were about to collide. The autopilot was dead, murdered by the virus that now dominated the ship. Lines of code flowed through the ship like poison through the veins of a man.

*

Kagura watched helplessly. How many lives were on that station, women, children, good men, evil men, each with a story, each ended with a fiery death. The front of the ship was about to touch the station now.

*

Tomo and Yomi sat, speechless. Why had the ship acted on it's own in such a way, this was unprecedented, was it even possible? No one would believe that Yomi wasn't responsible, this was not going to end well for her. The tip of the ship was just about to touch the station now.

*

The _Hammer of Thor_ smashed into the hull of the station, piercing it and driving through, just like the weapon it was named after. It hit it at speeds of hundreds of metres per second. An explosion rocked the station, engulfing the ship in flames. Small explosions burst from the ship as it's engine drove it deeper into the station. The explosions reached the epic engines of the _Hammer_ and they overloaded. The explosion was massive. It was as if a sun has been born in the heart of the ship as it died. White light blinded anyone watching and instantly vaporized anyone within a kilometre of the explosion.

*

Kagura's ship was pushed back and sent spinning into the abyss. She was still in shock from the awesome display of destruction she had witnessed, she could not see her hands in front of her, the only sight she had came from her peripheral vision. She had witnessed the wrath of God and could never forget that sight. Time slowed as she thought, in her half blinded state, all sense of direction lost, it was surreal. Her conciousness had retreated inside her own mind to shelter itself.

"She did this. Our captain set the ship for a collision course. She murdered those people, my team, my friends." Those words echoed through her head, each letter felt like it had to fall through a thick layer of Maple Syrup before it could join the others to form the word and then her mind went through each word it knew to find the definition of the one that had just formed. "Justice must be served, those fallen must be avenged."

Kagura's conciousness returned to the foreground and her vision cleared. She pulled the controls and wrestled the ship back into order. Whether the controls had suddenly become extremely responsive or if Kagura and simply willed the ship to stop, she didn't care. The ship was under her control again and she had the power to bring justice to those who's lives had just been ended.

*

Yomi and Tomo covered their eyes as the ship's engines exploded. Even from their place one hundred kilometres away, the force of the blast was extreme. They were forced back, their shuttle spinning into the abyss. Tomo regained control and stopped the ship in time to see the after effect of the explosion. A massive chunk of the station had been vaporized, Tomo zoomed in on the missing chunk, she could just make out the thousands of levels exposed by the blast. There were no bodies, not a surprise, Tomo wouldn't be surprised if everyone on the station had been vaporized by the superheated air that flood through the station.

Tomo could just imagine the hundreds of thousands of cooked bodies that filled the station now. Roasted from the inside out as the air vaporized their lungs and seared their flesh and organs. The thought of it all made Tomo sick. She quickly moved from her seat to throw up in the back of the ship. Her stomach was empty so she retched violently, but nothing came out.

Yomi was pulling on her hair. She had lost everything, her ship, her crew, her reputation, her career, her life. What captain could live down having their ship taken from them and used as a weapon of mass destruction against their own people?

"This is the end for me" Yomi muttered to herself. Tomo stopped retching and sat back down next to her friend. She patted Yomi on the back trying to comfort her captain of two years and friend of nineteen years.

"Don't worry, Yomi. We'll prove it was the ship that malfunctioned and that there was nothing we could do to stop it." Tomo offered, but her friend didn't look up at her,

"No, no one will believe that. The ships don't malfunction like that, this has never happened before." Yomi said, her voice cracking as she broke down into tears.

"Well, maybe someone hijacked the ship and steered it into the station." Tomo was grasping at ideas in the hope that one of them would make sense and give the authorities a reason to really investigate and not just pretend to and then convict Yomi anyway.

"That's almost completely impossible, they'd have to know everything about our schedule, computer systems, security systems, actually get onto the ship and get off it again, know all the right passwords (That are changed every week) and have the DNA and fingerprints of a ranking officer on board our ship. I don't think anyone is that good at infiltration, Tomo." Yomi replied, shooting down Tomo's suggestion.

"Yeah, well think of this. One of your bridge engineers plants a virus in the system that cripples the security systems for a while, another agent gets into the computer system and hijacks it from there, completely overriding any commands from the bridge?" Tomo quickly shot back.

Yomi looked up, her face was red and tears were clear on her face. "You aren't as dumb as you look, you know that" Yomi smiled at her friend, "But it's still extremely unlikely and why would anyone want to crash a ship into a space station? The Federation won't buy that for a second, we both know this." Yomi stood up walked into the passenger hold.

She took a deep breath, "I think, when they come for me, I'll just give myself over and you won't get into trouble. I'll plead my case and hope to God that they don't find me guilty."

Tomo, didn't say a word. She wore a sad expression while she listened to her friend's suggestion. "Is that an order, Captain?" Tomo said, her voice bitter.

"Yes. As your Captain I am ordering you to hand me over to the authorities when they come for me" Yomi was serious, she had always been serious. Tomo had rarely ever been serious and now was no exception.

"Well, "Captain", last I checked you were only Captain of the Hammer of Thor, which is parked in that station over there, so I don't see why I have to follow orders from you any more." Tomo kicked the acceleration lever and the shuttle lurched into life. Taking Yomi off guard and throwing her onto her stomach.

"Tomo! Don't! If you don't give me over they'll hunt us both down and then we'll really be in trouble." Yomi yelled as she tried to stand up, Tomo wasn't making it easy for her either. Tomo pushed the shuttle down then pulled it back up and rolled it so they faced away from the grim scene they had just witnessed. The artificial gravity of the ship was having trouble keeping up with Tomo, who was safely strapped to her chair, Yomi however was rolling around in the back.

"Here's what we do!" Tomo yelled out, a grin plastered across her face. "I'll warp us out of Fed space, from there we can figure out what we have to do to prove you are innocent."

Yomi pulled herself onto a seat and strapped in. "Tomo! We can't! Just face it, this isn't time for one of your jokes " Yomi pleaded with her smaller companion. Tomo turned to face her, an insane grin stuck on her face.

"This isn't a joke, but it's going to be as fun as hell, I'll admit that. Now, hold on, the warp on these things isn't the best!" Yomi was sure that Tomo had gone insane, that smile, her voice so full of self assurance. Yomi wished she could have the same madness that infected her friend, but she didn't. She was strapped in and was going on this ride whether she wanted to or not.

Tomo yanked the warp lever hard and their shuttle blasted itself away.

*


	3. Combine our Forces

Combine our Forces

(A/N) First of all: thank you Evil Tim 17, your support makes writing all the more fun. I'll be updating my other stories sometime this month and this one will be updated every week if I manage. Also, just a warning, this chapter (like the others) has a lot of stuff happening at the same time from different viewpoints in case you get confused when events seem to repeat themselves.

The _Neko-Koneko _fired away into the warp. It was a rougher ride than usual, which worried Sakaki greatly. She opened a line to engineering, "Ayumu, is everything ok down there?". Her voice spoke out from a speaker in Ayumu's office. Ayumu stood up and looked around, she could feel the ship vibrating, that was usually not a good sign, there was always a rumble at the beginning and end of a warp, but it should have faded by now. She looked at the engine line, a long, transparent tube that ran from the reactor, across the room and into the wall, where it was distributed across the ship.

It powered everything: Shields, engines, warp drive, lights and any other electrical appliance on the ship. The reactor itself was a swirling ball of silver liquid, electricity crackled along it's surface. Green waves of energy radiated off it and bounced off the transparent wall that shielded the ship's crew from it's raw energy. The green energy was compressed into a green laser that shot down the engine line, it was here that Ayumu had a problem.

She could see the crack in the shell tube and knew that if she didn't stop the engines quickly they were all going to be bathed in hard radiation, followed quickly by a reactor overload, which meant certain death to all on board.

Adrenaline pounded through her veins in a split second, "Sakaki! Cut the power! NOW" she screamed out. Sakaki heard and swiftly yanked the lever up. Chiyo and Sakaki were lurched forward violently in their seats as the ship fell out of warp prematurely. In engineering, Ayumu was thrown to the ground hard, she scrambled to her feet and yanked a lever down, the whole ship went dark. The only light was that of the distant star, cutting through the windows of the stationary ship, casting hard shadows on the floor and walls.

A single, orange light came on in engineering, then a few more. Slowly, all lights came back on through out the ship. Sakaki spoke out, "Ayumu, what was the problem?".

Ayumu was looking at the cracked tube and scratching her head. "Um, we have a problem, Sakaki. Can you guys come down here" she called out. Sakaki and Chiyo unfastened themselves and made their way down to engineering.

"What's the matter, Ayumu?" Chiyo asked the slightly taller woman. Ayumu replied by pointing at the crack in the tube.

"We have to fix that before we can go anywhere. If we try to warp any big distances, that tube will pop" Ayumu made an explosion with her hands to get her point across. "Then the reactor will go up and take us with it.".

Sakaki let out a hard sigh, "How long until we can move again?" Sakaki was worried, she needed that job and getting a new one wouldn't be easy.

"I can do a make-shift fix, but it won't hold all the way to the next station. We can back track to the first station if we hop to a few markers, but it'll take a while. I'm sorry, Sakaki" Ayumu apologised like she was to blame, which was partly true, if she had checked everything correctly she could have fixed the tube and there would be no problem.

"It's ok, Ayumu, it wasn't your fault. Can you just fix it as quickly as you can." Sakaki said, turning to leave engineering. She needed time alone to try an figure out what to do. She collapsed on her bed in a heaving sigh, she rolled over and faced the ceiling. Things just weren't going her way lately. Her ship needed serious repairs, she had hardly enough money to survive, work was few and far between and she hadn't seen her girlfriend in months.

Ayumu and Chiyo were in engineering. Chiyo was holding the ladder steady for Ayumu, who was welding a slab of metal onto the crack. It would slowly be worn down and the pipe would burst again, but they should be able to get it properly repaired before then.

"I feel sorry for Sakaki, she's been under a lot of stress lately." Chiyo said, looking up at the older woman.

"Yeah, when was the last time her friend came over, she always seems happier when she's around" Ayumu replied. She had tied her hair back into two pony tails while she worked, flicking her mask up to check her welding.

"Um, yes. Tell me: Where do you see yourself in five years? I doubt this ship will survive that long" Chiyo asked, moving around Ayumu's ignorance of Sakaki's "Friend".

"Um, I never really think that far ahead" came Ayumu's reply, somehow Chiyo wasn't surprised. "If we ever broke up I think I'd have to find another engineering job ..... and ...... I think we are done here." Ayumu slid down the ladder and pulled a lever slowly, a hum filled the room as the reactor awoke. The green laser shot down the tube and all the screens flickered into life.

"Great, tell Sakaki we can warp now but don't warp to anything past a million kilometres, I don't think it can last a trip that long" Ayumu warned.

Sakaki was sitting on her bed going through her picture collection. The day she bought her ship, a few pictures of it's maiden flight under her command. Some pictures of her, Chiyo and Ayumu on the bridge of the ship. Those were only a few years ago, but the _Neko-Koneko_ had really fallen apart since then. "One day I'll buy a brand new ship, a bigger one with a large cargo hold, then we'll see how many jobs I'll get" she thought as she looked through a magazine of ships.

*

Yomi and Tomo's shuttle floated through empty space. A few hundred kilometres away a belt of asteroids floated silently. The ship was adrift in dead space, the only people who visited these corners of space were miners in search of valuable ore and the odd pirate who were hunting undefended miners. Tomo and Yomi were here because Tomo had burnt out the shuttle engines when she warped out without any forethought as to where she would end up.

"Look, I'm sorry I didn't align us properly. I didn't know the shuttle's engines would burn out so quickly." Tomo apologised to her friend. Yomi was sitting down, her head hanging and she was slowly shaking it. "Come on, Yomi. Another hour and we'll be out of here".

Yomi sighed, "Tomo, I appreciate that you're trying to save me, but please, they'll be easier on me if I just turn myself in". Yomi was tired, the emotional roller-coaster the two had ridden lately was getting to her badly.

Tomo was usually very uncaring about other's emotions and wasn't known for her ability to comfort others, but she could tell when she had to be gentle. She sat down next to her friend and put her arm around her. "Yomi, I know you did all you could to stop the ship, but it wasn't your fault what happened. We will prove that you are innocent, I won't let you quit. You are the youngest captain of a capital ship _ever. _You didn't get there by rolling over every time something went wrong. Remember when you were suspended from flight school for crashing your training jet?" Tomo said, shaking her friend.

"They kicked you out the school for three weeks, but you didn't just go home and take your punishment. You hunted down every clue and possible lead that led you to justice. Remember?" Tomo said, Yomi was looking into Tomo's eyes, she could see that Tomo was being sincere.

Yomi remembered back to those days, "Yeah, you stole my jet and crashed in the hanger and I caught you on tape, beat you until you confessed and then threw you to the teachers" Yomi laughed, remembering how much trouble Tomo got into after that. But the two remained solid friends all the time.

"Yeah, that wasn't nice of you. Just apply that dedication and sneaky back-stabbiness to this situation" Tomo said, making up words to get her point across.

Yomi smiled, "Your right, Tomo. I never thought I'd admit that, but you are capable of the odd good idea" Yomi stood up and sat down in the co-pilots seat. She stared out the window at the twinkling stars. "Oh how life has changed in the last few hours" she thought. The calmness of space always made Yomi happy, it never changed, no matter what was going on in the world of men, space never changed.

The shuttle computer began beeping. Yomi turned her attention to the beeping machine. She pushed a button and a holo-gram appeared before her. "Oh, crap".

*

Sakaki sat in her chair, she was nervous of warping again, if Ayumu's fix failed then an immediate and fiery death would await them. The only land mark within a million kilometres was a lone asteroid belt. From there they could wait for the engines to cool down again and then jump to the next landmark. The Neko manoeuvred into position and Sakaki pulled the lever.

In engineering, Ayumu held her breath as she saw the engine line glow brightly and felt the lurch of the ship firing off into space. The room was vibrating, then a shock wave echoed through the hull of the vessel. From there is was smooth riding. The ship fell out of warp thirty kilometres from the belt.

Things just got worse for the small crew. Sakaki's console began beeping immediately, three pirates and one unidentified shuttle. "All crew to battle stations!" Sakaki announced. Chiyo jumped up from her seat and ran to her station. Ayumu waited in her station, surrounded by screens that gave read outs on the ship's shields, armour, hull strength and a number of other important engineering details.

"Chiyo, pull the safeties off the guns, we're going to need them" Sakaki spoke over the ship wide channel. Chiyo pushed some buttons on her console and a series of mechanical arms loaded the three rail-guns.

There were two on either side of the bridge and one on top. They fired slabs of hybrid charges at extremely high speeds at the enemy.

Chiyo checked her screen, she could see the three distant pirates, they were circling a single shuttle and seemed to have not noticed the lone cruiser approaching them. Chiyo ran a scan on the three ships, they were small frigates, they shouldn't be a threat to the superior cruiser as long as the Neko maintained it's surprise advantage, but three frigates could still pull down a cruiser that wasn't prepared. Chiyo watched a screen counting down the distance to the frigates.

She acquired a lock on two of the frigates, but they were still several kilometres out of range. Machinery buzzed and groaned as the rail guns were positioned.

Two of the frigates detected the lock and broke off from their circling to attack the cruiser. The distance between the frigates and the _Neko-Koneko_ fell quickly. The rail-guns fired their slugs and where quickly replaced with new slugs.

The first wave of slugs hit the incoming pirate ships. The first round was a special EMP slug designed to rip down the the shields of a ship, followed by two nuclear slugs that would blast through armour.

The first frigate took all three direct hits, it's shields fell quickly and it's armour took moderate damage as some shrapnel broke through and peppered the armour plating. The frigate released a missile, Chiyo's scan showed it to be a HellFire warhead, that was bad news. The Neko's shields could not deal with heat well. The missile hit the bare shielding around the ship, flames licked across it's surface scorching the old paint. The rail gun's fired again, the slugs left long, thin trails of blue as they shot through space at near the speed of light.

The EMP slug broke the frigate's shielding and the two nuclear slugs ripped big gashes in the hull, flames burst from the ships ruptured reactor line, the engines flickered and the ship was pulled hard to starboard. The second frigate released two missiles, one EMP warhead and a HellFire warhead. The EMP slammed into the Neko's shielding sending out a blue wave around the ship.

Ayumu felt the EMP missile hit, her screens flickered for a second and the shields readout fell by sixty percent. The shields couldn't hold out much longer, they were going to fall and then only the armour plating of the hull could protect them. She typed in some commands and the reactor glowed brightly as it pumped out more energy to try and repair the shielding. Her eyes flicked from her console to the make shift repair on the containment shell.

Sakaki was pushing her vessel as fast as it would go, she didn't know who was on board the shuttle, but maybe they could help her in some way if she saved them. She felt the ship shake each time a missile slammed into them, she watched the slugs fly from her guns and into the enemy. Another round of slugs were let loose and the frigate burst. A large yellow fire ball burst out from the frigate's overloaded reactor.

Chiyo turned her attention to the second frigate firing missiles at them. She swapped the Nuclear slugs for Iron slugs, they would punch through the new ship's armour like cardboard. The three guns fired simultaneously, the frigate was punched hard. An iron slug pierced the shield and went right through the pilot's window. The fist sized ball of molten iron ripped through the fleshy pilot like a light-sabre through soft butter. The damaged controls steered the ship into the asteroid belt, large rocks knocked pieces off the ship until the ship finally crashed into an asteroid.

The final frigate saw what happened to his companions and was fleeing the scene. His escape was cut off by the arrival of yet another ship to visit this lonely belt.

*

Kagura sat up in her seat. Her head still hurt badly and her vision was blurry, but it was no problem for the fighter who could fly her ship blind. She scanned in the direction of Yomi's escape, the only landmark within warping distance of the small shuttle was an asteroid belt.

Kagura aligned her ship and warped. Her Merlin had no better an engine than the shuttle, but Kagura wasn't planning on returning, if she had to crash her ship into the shuttle, she would. Anything to bring down the woman she had once respected and called her Captain. The warp wasn't an easy ride, the ship shook violently and the bubble didn't form completely, the warp drive was only attached to the fighter for emergency escapes.

She dropped out of warp and saw the unfolding scene. A shuttle with dead engines floating through space, a heavily armed frigate headed right for her, a smashed frigate in the middle of the belt and a run down cruiser moving towards the shuttle quickly. The inbound frigate was her first priority, her computer locked on in a few seconds and Kagura accelerated as she held down her trigger finger. She spun her ship as she gunned down the frigate. A tube of gold beams formed from her ship and connected with the frigate, it's shields fell swiftly. The frigate had been taken by surprise and hadn't raised his shields in time before Kagura's lasers punched a few holes in his hull. He pulled up, trying desperately to escape his new attacker. His computer screaming at him about hull breeches, failing shields and several other mechanical problems. A single, desperate shot escaped his rail gun and narrowly missed Kagura. Blasting over her head and slicing a shallow scar across the top of the ship. A report came up on her screen, her communications satellite had been damaged.

"I don't need it anyway" she thought, ignoring the report.

Kagura's lasers finally sliced through his hull and shattered his reactor, blowing his vessel into several large chunks that spun apart. Now her target was the cruiser, a scan of it revealed numerous weak points in the hull, it's shields were almost gone and it's engines were running on half power.

"This one will be even easier than the frigs" she thought.

Her scan showed the ship as being a freelancer vessel, the Neko-Koneko. "The pick up ship for her escape" Kagura reasoned, not knowing that she was about fire on an innocent bystander in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Kagura pushed her engines to maximum velocity, slicing through the void towards the injured vessel. Her computer locked on and she squeezed her trigger.

*

Chiyo was taken off guard by the new arrival's sudden switch in allegiance. She quickly commanded the ship to target the fighter, but her computers couldn't get a lock on the nimble fighter. "Come on, lock damn you" Chiyo thought out loud, watching her computer track the ship only to loose it.

The fighter released a volley of lasers, cutting down the ships shielding. Several lasers pierced the hull at the back end of the ship, right next to Ayumu's workstation.

Ayumu's computers screamed system failure at her. She was juggling between rerouteing power and trying to maintain damage control. The lasers had cut a small hole in her hull, nanite paste quickly sealed the wound but the laser had done the damage it needed to. Sparks were flying out of a machine, steam from a pipe was firing out.

Ayumu grabbed her welding kit and climbed up to the source of the steam. She slapped down the metal and crudely sealed the fissure. The sparky machinery would have to wait, that would require specialized tools and a calm environment to fix it in.

Chiyo had lost a gun. The Merlin had directly hit the base of the gun, melting the metal and essentially welding the gun in place. Her computer still refused to lock on, if Chiyo had any hope of taking down this ship she would have to go manual. She jumped over her console and rushed to one of the two working guns. She yanked open the door to the manual control seat in the massive gun, it was cramped and uncomfortable, but Chiyo had to deal with it.

A screen flickered into life in front of her, her finger hovered over the trigger, if she messed up she might not get another chance. She saw the fighter, it was flying right into her cross-hair, it was turned to give the largest surface area available to Chiyo, perfect. Chiyo's mind sped up, slowing down time, sweat formed on her brow. "Miss this shot and the fighter will defiantly shoot us down. Don't. Miss." the words formed slowly in her mind.

Chiyo squeezed the trigger and the iron slug was blasted into space. Chiyo's hair stood on end as railgun accelerated the slug to near light speeds.

*

Kagura was flying around for another shot at the cruiser, if she could hit the engines then the whole ship would be blasted apart. The armour was almost non-existent on this old ship, only the hull stood between her and the reactor.

Out of nowhere her ship was thrown into a violent spin. Her computer was screaming something at her but she couldn't care right now, she looked out her side window at her left wing. There was a massive hole in it, the wing only still attached by a few pieces of metal and some wires. There was no repairing that, if she could even limp back to a station the fighter was a write off. Her speed fell instantly as her engines died, Kagura flicked switches and pulled on the controls, but all she managed to achieve was to bring the ship to a stand still. As long as the cruiser didn't blow her to dust, someone might stumble upon her and rescue her, or at least her corpse.

Her console had a list of things that were wrong with the ship: Engines were dead, guns were dead, communications were dead, life support was in danger of packing up and she was helpless to do anything about it. Kagura sat in her coffin, drifting hopelessly in an asteroid belt that hadn't seen any life in years, except for the last few visitors. All of Kagura's anger and hatred evaporated out into space as the fact of it all flooded her.

One way or another, she was going to die here and her ship; the vessel that had carried her through many battles and been a loyal servant was now going to be her coffin, witness to her last hours.

"I always thought I would die in this ship, but I never thought I'd starve to death in here. My death was meant to be quick and spectacular" she thought as she watched the cruiser's guns point right at her, "Maybe this cruiser will give me that death".

*

Chiyo was about to deliver the coup de grâce to the crippled fighter when the speaker in her headset blurted out, "Chiyo, stop the guns!" Sakaki sounded urgent. "The shuttle pilots know the fighter and think there may have been a mix up".

*

Tomo could see the "_Hammer of Thor 5_" on the side of the ship, she knew who flew the fifth ship in her squad... "It's Kagura!" Tomo said, sitting straight up in her chair. The Merlin class fighter displayed on the shuttle holo-screen, words clearly displayed on it's top telling who's ship the little fighter belonged to.

"What?" asked Yomi, who had been watching the cruiser from a side window. She sat in the co-pilots seat and saw the fighter firing on the last pirate.

"It's Kagura, that's her fighter, she must have followed us after we lost the _Hammer. _She's shooting the last pirate" Tomo commented on what was unfolding before the two.

There was a flash and the pirate ship was no more, Kagura flew round the explosion and jetted towards the cruiser.

"Oh no, I think she thinks the cruiser was on the pirates side" Tomo watched Kagura open fire on their saviour, "Yeah, she defiantly thinks they're pirates. We have get on the radio, quickly!" Tomo began typing on the console. "Why isn't she replying? I think there's a problem" Tomo said as her console reported an error.

"She's firing on the cruiser! If they don't kill her, she going to kill them!" Yomi said, worried that her saviour was about be killed in a misunderstanding. "Try and raise the cruiser, tell them not to kill her!" Yomi ordered, her inner Captain coming to the surface.

"This is Tomo Tankino, on board the Hammer of Thor shuttle. Do not fire on the Merlin fighter, she has misidentified you as a pirate" Tomo said into the speaker with as much authority as she could.

A reply came a few seconds later, it started off fuzzy, "This is the Neko-Koneko. Tell the fighter to stand down and we will cease fire"

"There is a problem with her communications. We have tried to raise her but we can't" Tomo was getting worried, every second she spent trying to get the freelance captain to stop shooting, Kagura was closer to getting blown into nothing.

"Tomo, they just shot her!" Yomi announced, watching the single slug round blast through the wing of the fighter. Even from this distance she could see the bebris of her wing being blown into space and the flames of her engines dying, a clear sign of a crippling blow. "They've crippled her, tell them to stop, hurry before they fire again!" Yomi said speedily, she was more scared now than she had ever been captaining the gigantic dreadnought.

"Neko-Koneko, you've just crippled the fighter, cease fire immediately, the pilot is just confused" Tomo said, any authority and control was gone from her voice as she pleaded for her friend's life.

There was a pause, Tomo and Yomi held their breath as they watched the lone fighter spin away and slowly come to a halt in the darkness. Their hearts raced as they watched the cruiser to see if they would fire again.

"Our guns have stopped. Do you need any help?" Came the soft voice of the cruiser pilot. Both women let out a big sigh of relief. Yomi wiped the sweat from her brow and relaxed in her seat.

Yomi took over the speaker, "Thank you, Neko-Koneko. Our engines are burnt out and we don't have any supplies, do you have any room on your ship?" Yomi asked, she hoped she wasn't pushing her luck with this new friend of theirs.

"Yes we do, we'll be with you in a moment" came that firm, but soft and feminine voice.

*

Sakaki pushed her wounded ship forward. She would have to remember to congratulate Chiyo on that great shot.  
Slowly her ship limped over to the crippled shuttle. Ayumu had made her way into the cargo hold, she prepared the tractor beam to pull the shuttle into the correct position. The small shuttle connected to the larger cruiser. A door opened between them and for the first time the crew of the _Neko-Koneko_ met part of the crew of the late _Hammer of Thor. _

Sakaki stood with her hands behind her back, Ayumu and Chiyo stood at her flanks. Yomi and Tomo stepped on board the ship, the two crews faced each other.

Yomi broke the ice, "Thanks for saving us. We owe you one and I assume you want some questions answered".

"Don't worry about it. We do have some questions, but they can wait, do you need anything? I'm afraid we can't offer anything in the way of repairs of equipment, we need as much as we can get." Sakaki said, offering her hand to Yomi.

Yomi accepted and the two shook hands.

The Neko-Koneko still floated in dead space, her engines were cooling down. A few kilometres away, Kagura's crippled Merlin floated. In the bridge of the damaged cruiser, the two captains talked, their crews had dispersed around the ship, leaving only the two in the bridge.

"So where can we drop you off, where ever you want to go, it's going to take time. Our engines are nearly broken and we have to jump to landmarks and wait for the engine to cool down again" Sakaki said, her soft voice was tainted by the tiredness brought on by the bad day she was having.

"If you can get us to a station on the fringe, I can pay to have to have all this repaired" Yomi offered, her Captain's salary was stored in an account added up to a nice sum. Hopefully the Federation hadn't frozen her assets so she could actually pay the poor freelancer. Sakaki agreed to take her to a frontier station, no questions asked.

Tomo and Yomi sat in the small room, Yomi had to fill Tomo in on the plan so that the hyperactive fighter pilot wouldn't go running her mouth and screw things up again.

"Look, Tomo. I don't think we should tell these freelancers about what happened, if the Federation is after us, they will undoubtedly have a bounty on us soon enough, these freelancers are poor and I don't think they'd have a problem in turning us in for the bounty." Yomi warned.

"So they're gonna take us to a frontier station and from there we can figure out what to do, right?" Tomo questioned the vague plane.

"It's far from perfect, but what else can we do, this ship couldn't carry us around the galaxy while we looked for clues. I don't really even want to be on this ship much longer, I don't know how air tight it is." Yomi looked around room, the paint was old and faded, the windows stained and there was an odd rumble in the floor. "We can get our own ship from whatever station they drop us off on, maybe we can hire one of the goons who live on those stations to take us around."

"I don't like goons, they have no sense of humour, worse than you even." Tomo rubbed her ribs on the left side under her arm, remembering back to an incident many years ago.

"Most goons have a good sense of humour, you just ran into the one that didn't and went to far, as usual" Yomi replied.

Tomo nodded and looked out the small window. "What about Kagura? We can't just leave her to starve to death out here." Tomo quickly changed the subject to the fate of the crippled Merlin that still floated helplessly a few kilometres away.

"I know, do think they'd let us bring her on board?"

"Would they bring the pilot who had just shot up their ship on board, they only stopped her 'cause of that lucky shot. We could ask, I don't really want to leave her out here to die" Tomo watched the distant vessel silently float through the void.

*

Sort of an abrupt ending to this chapter, but the next one will be up soon, so don't worry. Sorry for any mistakes or words I may have accidentally left out.


	4. Gun for Hire

Gun for Hire

(A/N) No one to proof read this, no please forgive any mistakes.

Ayumu aimed her tractor beam at the small target. Behind her, Chiyo, Tomo and Yomi watched. The greenish beam connected to the Merlin, a vague cone shape formed from the Neko's tractor beam, arks of electricity flicked around it as it pulled the fighter towards them. Ayumu had to be careful at this point, if she was off by a few feet she could smash the Merlin into her own ship, slowly she manoeuvred the vessel through the cargo bay doors.

The large doors slid shut behind the Merlin, sealing themselves. The fighter came to a gentle rest on the floor of the cargo bay. A red light turned green as air was pumped into the large room.

*

Kagura sat in her seat, she was losing hope that the cruiser would spare her a slow death. She watched the shuttle being pulled towards the cruiser, the greeny cone sucking in the lone escape craft. "And so she escapes and I'm left here to rot" Kagura thought.

"Why would the captain do such a thing? Was she paid to do it? How much bribe money would someone have to pay to get her to do that? It would be cheaper to just buy your own ship and crash it yourself. So many dead." The thoughts echoed through her mind, she slumped down in her seat and watched the traitorous captain escape. "Should have bought a gun".

She closed her eyes and tried to focus on the blackness. She had several days to think before she died of dehydration or whatever fate awaited her, why waste all the thoughts on the first day?

A sudden jolt shook Kagura from her rest. She was being pulled towards the cruiser. "What are they doing? Why are they saving me" she was slightly relived that she wouldn't die in dead space, but then the thought of what they would do to her dawned. Pirates were known to take slaves to sell or keep. A fate that Kagura was not looking forward to. Given her appearance, Kagura was likely to end up as a certain type of slave ....

Kagura would rather die than become that. She searched franticly around her seat for a weapon to defend herself with. There was nothing, not even a piece metal to use as a shank. The cargo doors were opening and Kagura was running out of time.

She entered the bay, her cold blue Merlin clashed with with rusty brown of the cargo bay. He ship settled onto the floor and the door closed behind her. She saw the streams of steam flooding the the room with a mixture of nitrogen, oxygen and a bit of carbon dioxide. Kagura stayed in her seat, not sure on what to do. A door on the other side of the cargo opened, several people walked in, Kagura couldn't see who they were but she knew that Captain Mizuhara was one of them.

Kagura knew if she had a chance of surviving this encounter she would have to make herself dominate. She opened her cockpit and climbed out of her Merlin, she was met by the smell of recycled air. "Geez, how old is this ship?" she thought tasting the old air, the Hammer's air recycling systems were far superior to the point were it actually smelt fresh and clean, but this ship was metallic and greasy.

The group approached her and her hands rolled into fists. She wanted to snarl but managed to control her facial expressions. A look of anger and disgust was still present on her face. The group moved into view, Yomi was the only face she recognized. Behind here was a short woman with two long pony tails, she looked a little young to be part of a criminal organisation. The other woman was only slightly taller than the other girl, she had straight, brown hair that reached her shoulders. She was pretty plain looking, cute, but plain. This was no band of hardened criminals or ruthless mercenaries. Kagura was getting confused.

Kagura's confusion reached a new peak when one of her old wing man stepped out from behind Yomi. "Tomo?! What the hell are you doing here?" Kagura demanded, her jaw dropping.

"I escaped the ship with the Captain. What are _you_ doing here?" Tomo asked, folding her arms at the confused fighter pilot.

Yomi turned around and spoke to the Neko crew members, "Can you guys leave us, we need to talk to her alone. Tell your Captain she can warp as soon as she's ready." The two young women turned and left for their separate duties. Yomi turned back to Kagura, the authoritative and commanding look that Yomi had worn on her ship was all but gone now.

"I .. uh .. came after the Captain after she crashed the ship" Kagura said, unsure of herself suddenly. Either this was a very strange rescue or Kagura had severely misread the situation. Yomi sighed.

"I didn't crash the ship, something went wrong and the ship crashed itself. Tomo and I escaped before the ship hit the station. But I tried to stop it, nothing worked, the controls were unresponsive, the engines refused to shut down, the comms wouldn't work. Nothing ... Worked." Yomi said, making sure the pilot got the point of her message.

Kagura gulped, she had expected a band of outlaws and a traitorous captain who she could blame and hate easily. What she was faced with couldn't be more different, her old wing-mate, two young freelancers and her Captain claiming to have been the victim of a tragic accident.

How do I know you aren't lying?" Kagura tried to reassure herself.

"Kagura, trust me. Look how serious I'm being, have you ever seen me be this serious before? Something went wrong on the ship and I helped the captain escape. We arrived here when our engines burnt out" Tomo spoke, her face deadly serious.

Kagura had never seen Tomo this serious, she had never even thought Tomo capable of being serious. Kagura lowered her guard, she looked to the floor as she thought about what she had just learned.

"Why did you warp out? Why didn't you stay there and wait for the authorities to arrive?" Kagura asked, trying to put the two into a corner and catch them out.

"Tomo and I knew they wouldn't believe us, so Tomo warped us to this belt. We were planning to find a ship on one of the outskirts stations and search for some clues to help us explain what happened. It isn't a very good plan I admit, but we don't have anything better."

Captain Mizuhara had always been a good captain, always fair, always treated her crew with respect and never asked too much of them, she was the least likely to become a traitor, but Kagura knew that Capital ships could only be controlled from the bridge and the bridge was only accessible to certain members of the crew.

DNA locks kept the bridge impossible to get into by anyone except the authorised crew members and the Captain was the only one on board at the time of the crash. Capital ships never had malfunctions of that type, the _Hammer of Thor_ was old, but not so old that it had a mind of it's own. Kagura needed a minute to herself.

"What are you going to do with me?" Kagura asked timidly, she knew they couldn't just drop her off at a station and carry on their way, did Kagura want them to get away? She hadn't decided if she trusted them yet, it was a big decision to make.

"Well, you can join us." Yomi offered, "We're going to need as many helping hands with this as possible"

Tomo took Kagura to the spare room. Kagura sat on the bed, her hands wrapped around her head, it was hurting from the bashing it had taken earlier and the difficult choice Kagura was now faced with. If her Captain was telling the truth, then she would join the two fleeing women, but if Yomi was to blame for the attack on the station, then she would helping a wanted fugitive of the Federation. Kagura's whole life could be ruined if she was convicted, her pilot's licence stripped and she would be forced to look for work planet-side.

Kagura made up her mind, she looked Tomo in the eyes and said "Ok, I'm with you". Kagura knew she was potentially signing away her life.

In engineering, Ayumu was examining the damage Kagura's laser had done. She had welded the burst pipe earlier and that would hold it for a while. But now Ayumu had to fix the wiring that had been sparking for the last several minutes. She had her gear ready and began fusing the small wires together. She continued to repair every small break and fracture throughout the ship, starting in the engine room she moved through the cruiser, acting single mindedly as she focused all her attention and energy to the task at hand.

Ayumu informed Sakaki that all the repairs were done and the engines were ready for warp. Tomo and Yomi were talking with Kagura who had relaxed and was opening up to the two of them. Sakaki informed the ship of the incoming warp lurch and pulled the lever.

Several long hours later....

The Neko dropped from warp next to the GH – 7 Station. The crews had been on the bridge talking, they had grown close but the three Hammer crewmen hadn't said a word about the Station attack or their involvement in the tragedy. If they could get off the the ship and find their own they could leave the freelancers with a healthy sum of money and never have to worry about the Federation involving the freelancers in Yomi's escape.

The Neko was guided into the hanger just as it had many, many times before. Yomi and Sakaki met up in a bar to discuss their payment.

The bar was small, almost no one else was in there, just the two captains, the barman and a lone man at the bar who seemed pretty wrapped up in his drink to hear the conversation happening behind him.

"How much do you think it would cost to replace your ship? I feel really bad that my friend did all that damage." Yomi said over her drink.

"I still can't get over how lucky I am, the only reason we found you was because my old ship couldn't make the full warp." Sakaki was smiling broadly trying to hold in her laughter of joy. Her dream of owning a brand new ship had come much sooner than expected. Her day had gone from bad to brilliant in a several hours.

"It's too good to be true" Sakaki said, taking a sip of her drink.

"I feel bad about this, but once she has her new ship she'll be happy and totally oblivious to all this." Yomi thought, a smile on her face.

A holo-screen above the bar flicked to a news channel, on the large screen a video of the _Hammer of Thor_ colliding with the AC – 3 Station played. Yomi's heart jumped into her throat, she kept her head down and took another swig of her drink.

Sakaki looked up and saw the news report, her mouth slowly fell open. She shook her head slowly as she watched the video replay. The video changed to a picture of Captain Koyomi Mizuhara. A voice played, it was quite, but Sakaki could still make out the words.

"The Federation Police are still hunting Captain Koyomi Mizuhara, captain of the Hammer of Thor, who set a deliberate collision course of the AC – 3 Station. Over a million people were living on the station at the time of the attack, reports are unconfirmed but it is estimated that at least two hundred thousand people have died, but that number continue to rises .... "

Sakaki's head snapped back to Yomi, her face was painted in shock, she had gone pale and her mouth was hanging loosely. "You ... you did that?" Sakaki whispered, trying not to attract any attention. "You are Koyomi Mizuhara. You crashed your ship into the station." Sakaki was shaking.

"No! Look, you've got it all wrong. There was a malfunction on the ship and it crashed, there was nothing I could do, please believe me, please." Yomi begged, she was scared now, very scared. If Sakaki sold her out now she would have no chance of pleading innocent.

"What kind of malfunction? My ship has gone through more computer problems than I can possible remember, but never anything like that!" Sakaki whispered loudly, her normally angelic voice had a taint in it, she was mad.

"I don't know, that's why Tomo and I needed to get out of Federation space; to find clues on how this happened or who did it, please don't sell me out, I didn't do anything wrong please believe me" Yomi had tears in her eyes, she was scared badly.

I ... I don't know. Who could be to blame for this? Did someone get onto your bridge and hijack you?" Sakaki was breathing heavily as she demanded answers.

"No ... I don't know how they did it, somehow they hijacked my systems and overrode my controls then steered the ship into the station, please believe me, Sakaki, please."

I don't know. I'll ... I'll see you back at the room in an hour" Sakaki stood up and was about to leave. Yomi grabbed her wrist and pulled her close so she could whisper in her ear.

Please, don't sell me out. I'm innocent and I need to prove it. If you help me, I'll give you enough money to buy a fleet of cruisers" Yomi resorted to bribing to keep Sakaki quiet.

"I won't. I just need to be by myself for a while." She whispered back. Yomi released her and the tall women swiftly left the bar. Yomi ran her fingers through her hair and stared at the table. She closed her eyes to concentrate.

The sound of the chair in front of her scrapping against the floor caught her attention. She looked up saw, not Sakaki or anyone she knew.

*

Tomo and Kagura were sitting in the room they had rented. It was themed blue and everything in the room was some shade of it, from aqua to navy. Kagura was laying on her bed and Tomo was running through the channels on the holo-screen. Most of the channels were covering the attack on AC – 3. Tomo finally found a decent channel that wasn't about the attack: Cartoons.

It was some silly show about a gang of kids fighting other gangs on a space station. Tomo sat down and watched, making commentary through out the show. Kagura filtered out Tomo's voice, she had a lot of practice doing it so now was no challenge.

" ... hail, for I am Bud" Tomo said impersonating the lead characters voice. She continued to throw in extra dialogue that made the characters look like morons.

"Tomo" Kagura sat up, "Did you have any idea on how you were going start hunting down the clues you needed to prove Yomi is innocent" During the long trip over to the station, Kagura and Yomi had become good friends, so Koyomi let her call her by her nick-name. Yomi had told Kagura to drop the "Captain" as she owned no ship as was no longer a captain.

"Nope." Tomo didn't take her eyes off the screen.

"So you just fired off without any real plan at all?" Kagura

Tomo began singing along with the cartoon's theme song, singing it in a deliberately whiny voice.

"How long have you know me, Kagura?" Tomo asked.

"Um .. about three years" Kagura said, not sure how that answered her original question.

"When have I ever had a plan?" Tomo faced her for a second before turning back to her cartoon and adding another line of dialogue that made Kagura chuckle under her breath.

"You're right. Stupid question now that I think about it" Kagura lay back down her arms behind her head.

"Stupid!" Tomo yelled out of nowhere, spinning around and bringing her fist down hard on Kagura's stomach.

*

Yomi stared up at the man sitting in front of her. He had several horizontal scars across both his cheeks. His dark brown, almost black, hair was cut into a short Mohawk, only a few centimetres tall while the rest was shaved to only a few millimetres. The second most noticeable feature on him was hit rat-tail beard. A braided string of hair growing from his goatee reaching about three inches down.

He had a slight smile growing from one side of his mouth, but his eyebrows looked angry. He looked like he wanted something from Yomi and was going to get it whether she was willing or not.

"I over heard something about a ship being controlled and the bridge loosing control" he said. His voice was deep and rumbled, but wasn't gravelly. He rose one eyebrow while the other staid down. He was facing to the left of Yomi, but his eyes were firmly set on hers.

Yomi didn't know what to say. She couldn't confess that she was the wanted captain and risk this guy reporting her. "Who are you?" she decided, it didn't answer his question, but could remove Yomi's disadvantage.

"My name is Vek. The second name isn't important. And you are Koyomi Misuhara, the most wanted woman in the Federation as of several hours ago." The man called Vek offered his hand.

Yomi hesitated, then shook his hand slowly.

"I was in here four hours ago, this guy was drunk over" Vek pointed at a table in the corner. "He was talking something about hijacking a computer system by injecting a virus and then bailing the ship" Vek explained. "That sounds like the sort of thing that could have happened on your ship".

Yomi wasn't sure if she could trust this guy. He could be a Federation agent trying to trick her. "How do I know you aren't trying to capture me. I don't know if there is a bounty on me, but I'm sure there are plenty of glory seekers out here" Yomi looked the man up and down. He defiantly looked like the bounty hunter type or maybe a pirate. He had numerous scars across his face, his hard features emphasized by the cuts across his face. The most noticeable scar was a long one than ran from his forehead down across his face and cutting into his lip. Yomi could see the scars left by the stitches, it must have been one hell of an injury to give a scar like that.

From what Yomi could see, he was lean. Thin frame, but packed with muscle. His fingers were long and bony, the rest of his hand was hidden behind black fingerless gloves.

"Haha, no. I have no intention of handing you over. I am, in fact, offering you my services. Mercenary work is a little short around here and you need someone to take you to that guy who can hijack ship computers" he leaned back in his chair, folding his hairy arms. Yomi could see writing tattooed onto his left forearm, it was in Latin.

Yomi mimicked his actions. "So you're a merc. What's your price for taking us to this guy?" She asked. The sly mercenary chuckled.

"Well, like I said: Mercenary work is a little short around here. So, I'm offering you a special deal and you're pretty cute too, so that helps."

Yomi blushed just a tiny bit at the compliment, "Thank you, but that doesn't answer the question" Yomi switched back to serious mode.

"Twenty grand and I'll take you to the guy. I know where he is, but I don't know if he'll stay there for long, so speed is essential."

"Hmm. We have a problem there. I'm flying with someone who's ship is in dire need of repair and won't be going anywhere for awhile."

"Ok, you are going to need a good ship if you want to survive out here. You have no way of getting a new ship quickly?"

"I don't. But maybe one of my crew does. Ok, if I pay you your fee, you'll stick with us for how long?"

"Let's say ... until you are no longer hunted by the Feds" the merc offered. Yomi was surprised, why was the mercenary being so generous?

"You are offering to follow me around for an indefinite amount of time, knowing full well that I have half the Federation fleet after me and you are asking for only twenty grand?" Yomi cocked an eyebrow.

The merc put his elbows on the table and rubbed his chin, deep in thought. "Good point. Honestly, I've been on this station for weeks, I need to get out of this place and do something before I lose my mind." Vek gripped his head and his voice cracked a little.

Yomi and Vek split after agreeing on the details of the contract. Yomi returned to her room where she told Ayumu and Chiyo about the attack on the station. Both of them seemed to take it a lot better than she had expected, maybe because Yomi had Tomo and Kagura to back her up. Chiyo wanted to talk with Sakaki before she agreed to join them, but she seemed to believe Yomi's story.

*

Sakaki walked down the quiet hallway. The carpeting muffled her steps as she briskly made her way to a viewing platform. She sat on one of the comfy seats underneath the large glass dome. She looked around and saw the Inter-Station phone system, a thought entered her head. She needed a new ship, but she needed something else first, someone else actually.

She punched in a long series of letters and numbers, the ringing tone began and someone answered. Hey, it's me" Sakai said, assuming the person on the other end would recognize her voice.

*

Sakaki returned to the apartment she was sharing with the five other women. She had been away for nearly half an hour.

She walked in and announced "Kaorin is going to be here three hours". Yomi, Tomo and Kagura were slightly confused and looked to Chiyo to enlighten them. "Yomi, can I talk to you in the next room" Sakaki moved into the adjoining room, followed by Yomi.

"Who's Kaorin?" Kagura asked, once the door between the two rooms shut.

Chiyo hesitated over the slightly uncomfortable explanation. "Um, Kaorin is a freighter pilot who has a trade line the comes pretty close to here. She and Sakaki are pretty ... close"

"Close you mean like rally good friends?" Tomo asked, clearly as oblivious as Ayumu was to the relationship between Sakaki and Kaorin.

"No, Tomo. She mean that their partners, right?" Kagura explained to her wing mate.

Yeah, they've been together for as long as I've known her." Chiyo confirmed.

"Partners? Oh! You mean like girl – girl?" Tomo clapped her hands around her mouth as she realized what Chiyo meant.

"Yes, is that a problem with you?" Chiyo asked.

"No, no. She just didn't seem like the type to be a lesbian." Tomo explained.

*

In the next room, Sakaki filled Yomi in on the new situation.

"I have a friend who's going to deliver some pair parts to this station, she'll be here in three hours. We can fix the ship, but I still don't think it'll be good enough to survive out here for long". Sakaki's voice had returned to it's normal soft state, much to the relief of Yomi.

"I wouldn't worry too much about that. I met a mercenary in the bar, he's agreed to fly with us until we no longer need him. He's got his own ship and he knows a man who claimed to have had something to do with the attack." Yomi explained.

Sakaki's look turned to one of concern, she didn't really want to be involved in this at all, she was too far in to turn back now, but she didn't want Yomi bringing in more people who could possible sell all of them out.

"Are you sure you can trust him? Your crew aren't the only ones at risk if we get caught" Sakaki said, her voice tainted by slight anger.

"I know, Sakaki. I think we can trust him, he didn't seem interested in any potential bounty so I think his intentions are honest." Yomi replied, she knew she was dragging down Sakaki and her crew, "If we do get captured, I'll make sure they know that you had no idea who I was. I promise."

Sakaki sighed, "Ok, so what is the plan you and the merc had?"

"He wants to get out of here as soon as possible, but he can wait for your ship to be repaired."Yomi laid out the details of the plan for Sakaki. The merc suspected that the man was in the mining colony right on the boarder of Federation space, but that was just a stop off for his true destination which could be anywhere in the Wild Lands, billions of square kilometres of lawless space.

*

The group hung out for the remaining three hours. They talked more of the attack on the station and who could possible be to blame.

"I don't know why you guys continue to argue, there is a perfectly rational explanation for all this: Elves" Tomo stood up and announced.

"Tomo, you're suggestions and opinions are hereby no longer valid in any situation. Does everyone understand?" Yomi said, trying to shut her friend up. All the others nodded, except for Ayumu.

"It makes sense to me" she said with a blissful and blank look on her face.

"Yes, that makes it less likely to be true" Chiyo muttered under her breath.

"Pfft, just because none of you can use your imagination, doesn't mean I shouldn't." Tomo stood up and switched on the holo-screen.

"So, what's this Vek guy like?" Kagura asked Yomi, so far the only one to have met their mercenary.

"What do you mean?" Yomi replied, she took a sip of her drink.

"What does he look like? Does he look like a mercenary should?" she asked, intrigued with the latest addition to the crew.

"Yeah, he's got there wired horizontal scars across his face, I think he did them himself because they don't look natural. He has a lot of scars and tattoos, he probably has many more that I didn't see. Why don't you ask him yourself when you meet him?" Yomi explained. She couldn't really give that many details about him apart from the scars, beard and tattoos, he had that sort of generic handsomeness.

"Fine, I will." Kagura folded her arms at Yomi, indicating a clear 'I'm closed' in body language.

There was a knock on the door and a girlie voice sounded from behind it, "Sakaki, it's me"

Sakaki jumped up and opened the door. The door slid apart and there stood Kaorin. She was shorter than Sakaki, only coming up to her shoulders, she had straight hair than reached her shoulders, it was dark brown but had a streak of red than ran down longer than the rest of her hair across her left ear. She was wearing some rather ragged clothes, an old black hoodie and and dark jeans that had several cuts in them. She wore the army boots that seemed to be very popular among the crew of the Neko-Koneko.

She had a cute smile s she entered the apartment. She hadn't seen Yomi yet.

"Hi, Chiyo, Ayumu." She waved at them and they waved back offering their greeting. She hugged Sakaki tightly and Sakaki squeezed back, pressing her body into the smaller woman's.

"Kaorin, I have something important to tell you. Trust me in this, ok?" Sakai told Kaorin looking her in the eye. Kaorin was confused.

"Why? What's wrong?" She was worried, her girlfriend was usually very open with her.

Yomi stepped into Kaorin's view. She immediately recognized the face that had been plastered across every news network since the attack several long hours ago. Kaorin's face fell, she looked back to Sakaki who still held her tightly.

"What is she doing here, Sakaki? You aren't involved in what happened, are you? Is that why you are on the outskirts?" Kaorin asked, searching her partners eyes for the truth.

"She had nothing to do with the attack. She saved my friend an I from pirates" Yomi stepped forward to help Sakaki explain why she was drinking with one of the most wanted people in the Federation.

Sakaki sat Kaorin down and the group went through the events that led them up to where they were now. Kaorin seemed to be having the hardest time in dealing with what she had been told. She sat with her head in her hands, Sakaki at her side.

"Can we have some time alone?" Sakaki asked the group. Yomi didn't really want to go out, she wanted her face to be hidden as much as possible from anyone who could report her. But she knew Sakaki needed to be alone with Kaorin for a while.

The five women left the apartment and wandered back to the ship, might as well get the ship ready. Ayumu couldn't start fixing the ship properly until they unloaded the parts from Kaorin's cargo hold. What she could do is fix the railgun Kagura had welded in place. The rest of the crew loaded the cargo bay with the supplies they had bought. It was normal provisions; Food, water, medical supplies and other similar necessities.

*

(A/N) Yes, Sakaki and Kaorin are together, I thought I'd throw Kaorin a bone, she deserves it I say. That's the end of this chapter. I should have the next few chapters written and checked by the time you read this


	5. Into the Wilds

Into the Wilds

(A/N)Just so you know, this chapter has a yuri scene but it's hardly graphic, maybe PG 13 at most. If any of that offends you, just skip down the next scene, it won't affect the story at all. Again, no one to proof read, so there will be a few mistakes here and there, forgive me.

Sakaki and Kaorin sat on the sofa of the apartment. Kaorin was still in Sakaki's arms recovering from the shock of learning her girlfriend was helping a wanted terrorist escape the Federation. She sat up and looked at Sakaki and smiled.

"At least you aren't leaving me." She leaned in and kissed Sakaki on the lips. They held the kiss and Sakaki moved her hands to the back of Kaorin's head, mashing their faces more. Kaorin's hands moved down Sakaki's back, feeling every contour of her slim body. Sakaki's hands moved down onto Kaorin's shoulders and she pulled off the hoodie. Beneath was a skin tight black shirt that clung to her frame. Sakaki slipped off her jacket and stood up.

The two were standing up now, Kaorin was kissing Sakaki's neck while she moved her hands down to Sakaki's belt. Sakaki did the same, loosening Kaorin's belt and tugging on the loose jeans. They fell to the floor, revealing Kaorin's tight black panties. Kaorin kicked off her shoes and pulled her girlfriend into the bedroom. Sakaki quickly removed her clothes, tossing them to the floor. Kaorin lay on the bed and Sakaki stood at the bottom, dressed only in her underwear and socks.

"Just as good as I remember" Kaorin commented, seeing her girlfriend for the first time in months. Sakaki blushed heavily, she had always been embarrassed about her body, even though Kaorin insisted that she was beautiful. Sakaki crawled on top of Kaorin and the two continued to make out, sharing their tongues and saliva. Kaorin's hands moved up and caressed her girlfriend's chest. Sakaki's hands did the same to the smaller woman beneath her. Kaorin freed up a hand to slid down Sakaki's back and over her round butt.

*

Ayumu stared at the console before her. Her normally relaxed brain was firing as she tried to figure out what she could do to boost the shielding. She would have to sacrifice one of the less vital components to boost the power for the shielding. Beneath her, Kagura was examining the long pipes that ran from beneath the floor, up the wall and into the ceiling. Kagura was a fighter pilot, not an engineer but she did have some knowledge of ship systems. Chiyo was helping Yomi set up the spare room. They would have to share rooms when they were out in space,there were only four beds on the ship for six women. That wouldn't have been such a problem if the rooms were slightly bigger, but they were only few metres squared and most of that was taken up by the bed.

There was one bathroom for them to share for what would likely be a weeks long search. There was a worry that some of the crew would become stir-crazy and do something stupid in the middle of a battle. There were stories of crews who spent too much time on a ship and ended up murdering their crew mates. It was always good to go planet side every once and a while, set your feet on natural ground and breath natural air.

Tomo was on the bridge, watching the holo-screen. As usual she was commenting on whatever show she was watching. Kagura entered the bridge and saw her friend, relaxed on the couch watching TV.

"Tomo! Make yourself useful and go see if Sakaki's friend is ready to offload the spare parts, Ayumu wants to fix the ship ASAP"

"Aww, it's not your fault you're a chunk head .... What?! Go do it yourself, Kagura" Tomo shot back after her criticism of the actor in the movie.

Kagura walked up the idle fighter pilot. She knew how to deal with her when she was in this mood. Kagura grabbed her by the back of the neck, squeezing hard, this created intense pain and if she fought back, Kagura would only squeeze harder. Tomo couldn't fight back when Kagura had her in that grip. She dragged her off the sofa, towards the airlock. Despite Tomo's struggling, Kagura had little trouble throwing her off the ship, onto the platform.

"GO!" She ordered to Tomo, who was sitting on the ground in protest. Tomo reluctantly got to her feet and returned to the apartment.

Tomo, never one for knocking, barged into the room and called out to Kaorin, "Hey, Sakaki's friend. We need the stuff off your ship" there was no answer, but there was a thud and some commotion coming from the bedroom. Whatever went through Tomo's mind as she approached the bedroom door obviously had nothing to do with the logical idea that Sakaki might not want her walking in on her.

Tomo swung open the door and stepped inside. There were two screams, then a third one and Tomo was back outside very quickly. The image was burned into her eyes, no matter how hard she tried to get rid of it, it was still there, as clear as if it was a holo-gram in front of her. She had seen Sakaki on the bed with no covers, on the floor next to the bed was Kaorin, she had pulled the covers off when she fell from the bed but her top was clear. Tomo had gotten an eyeful of both their naked bodies.

She slammed the door shut, "Oh .. crap." Tomo muttered to herself. "Sorry you guys!" she yelled through the door.

The door opened and Kaorin stood face to face with Tomo, a blanket covering her. She looked angry. "What do you want?!" she demanded of Tomo.

Tomo stuttered, still in shock at what she had just seen. "Sorry, I .. I was sent to get the stuff off your ship, we need them." Tomo forced out.

Kaorin went back into the room and returned a second later with a card. She handed it to Tomo, "Here, make sure everything is locked when you leave" Kaorin slammed the door in Tomo's face. Tomo stood there for a second, holding the card and staring at the metallic door. She could hear Kaorin's muffled voice, she was saying something about Tomo.

Tomo didn't stay to find to find out what it was, she quickly left before any unpleasant sounds entered her head that she couldn't shake, like the scene that was still burned into her eyes.

Kaorin's ship was bigger than the _Neko-Koneko_, it was about three hundred metres long. Most of that was cargo space or engines. Tomo inserted the card in the console and a large door opened on the side of the ship. Inside where rows and rows of blocks. Each block was a tightly pack collection of something or other. As Tomo wandered past the towering blocks, she investigated the tags they wore that told her what the contents of each block was. Tomo past the blocks and came into a clearing, there were several large objects with covers draped over them. She kept moving through the empty, quiet, cold cargo hold.

One of the objects had a tag that read 'Sakaki's supplies'. Tomo looked under the cover, from what she could tell it was just spare parts for the engine. Tomo looked back to the large blocks she had past, a thought entered he head...

*

Kagura looked over the railing, beneath the platform was abandoned rubbish that previous users of this dock had dumped there. "That's a weird stain" she thought examining an odd shaped colour on the metal beneath her.

There was a grinding noise from behind her, she turned to see a section of the wall grinding open. Three large blocks and something covered by a sheet hovered through the opening and settled on the platform. She stared at them for a second, waiting for something to explain what had just happened.

Tomo burst into the room, a broad gin plastered across her face. She strode up to Kagura, her step filled with confidence. Tomo stood in front of Kagura, her arms folded and her smug grin still in place. "You can thank me when your ready." She said to a still confused Kagura.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Kagura replied, folding her arms in a subconscious defensive stance. "Are you responsible for this?" indicting the blocks of ... something, next to her.

"Yes. I think Kaorin owes me for what happened earlier. So I took a few extras from her cargo hold." Tomo rocked a little on her feet, trying to hold in the joyful laughter singing in her head.

Kagura frowned, "What did Kaorin ever do to you?".

Tomo's smug look fell as she remembered back to the scene she had witnessed. "Um, let's just say; she showed me something most people have to pay to see and I'm not really grateful for it." Tomo shook off the memories. "So I took a little extra from her cargo hold as an apology".

"Tomo! That's theft, we don't want Sakaki kicking us off her ship for pissing off her friend" Kagura got close up to Tomo, trying to intimidate the slightly shorter woman into doing what she was told.

"Just look what I took, then I think you'll change your mind" Tomo showed Kagura the tag attached to the containers.

"Junk food? You stole thirty cubic metres of junk food?" Kagura looked at each tag, they all contained a vast verity of junk food from salty to sour to sweet. On board Federation ships, junk food was strictly rationed and didn't contain nearly as much verity as what the blocks contained. Because of this, crews always had a weakness to the less than healthy food stuffs and Kagura was no exception, if anything she had the biggest weakness.

Tomo had maintained a constant campaign of thieving every piece of junk food Kagura did not eat immediately, so she cherished every piece she could. "Okay, Tomo. Stuff like this disappears all the time, she won't notice a few cubic metres missing out of a ship that big." Kagura reasoned, she was desperate for some toxins in her system, it felt good to let go once in a while and Kagura had a metabolism that burnt away fat while she slept, so she had less to worry about than most.

Kagura was desperate to crack open the first block of food and investigate it's contents. They placed the large holders of junk in the cargo hold, but before either got a shot at the delicious contents, they were called back to the engine room by Yomi to help install the new equipment.

Slowly Ayumu replaced each and every damaged piece of technology until the engine was almost completely rebuilt. Half of the equipment was nice and shiny, the other half was dull and rusting. Finally, they were ready to go. Yomi phoned Sakaki and the merc, Sakaki was on her way down and Vek would meet them in the hanger.

Sakaki was awkward around Tomo and the two didn't make eye contact. They were standing on the platform, getting a little impatient for the mercenary.

"I don't know where he is, Tomo. For the last time I do not know where the mercenary is." Yomi was close to punching Tomo who hadn't shut up for the last ten minutes waiting for the merc to show.

There was a loud grinding behind them, the hanger doors were moving apart. A ship called the "Thunder Horse" was pulled into the hanger by the gravity tethers. It was a seventy metre long frigate of Hookbill design.

The Hookbill was the ugly duckling of the Federation arsenal. It was the Hind (Mil MI 24) of it's day, ugly but beautiful at the same time. (In case my descriptive skills fail here, a picture of the Hookbill is my avatar at the moment) It had two wings, each with an engine attached and a long spike on the tip for communications. A third engine came out the back of the ship, just behind the cargo hold. The front segment was vertically longer than the rest of the ship, it came down ten metres further than the rest of the ship and sloped back up to the body on the underside. Three railguns were grouped at the bottom of the front segment, one of the underside and one on either side. Three windows on the front showed the location of the main bridge. One floor down and on the sides of the bridge segment were a row of windows, these were Vek's living quarters, his bedroom, kitchen etc.

The gravity tethers lowered the ship so it hovered about a metre above the platform. The airlock opened and there stood Vek. None of the crew, except Yomi, had seen Vek yet and the tall figure that now stood in the doorway, cut an impressive figure. He dropped down onto the platform, a loud thud announced his landing. He eyed each woman quickly as he walked up to them. They examined his outfit: hiking boots, dark blue jeans, black top, a long black trench coat and fingerless gloves.

Tomo stepped forward, "You're late!"

Vek looked her up and down, she only reached his chest but didn't seem intimidated by his stature. "You're early" he replied, reflecting Tomo's assault.

They stared each other down until Yomi stepped in. "Vek, you have the coordinates for the mining colony, right?"

Vek switched his eyes to Yomi, "Yeah, I'll send them to you when we're in space." Vek looked at the _Neko-Koneko_, looking it up and down. "You have enough room for all of you in that?"

"No, some of us have to share beds. How long do you think we'll be out here?" Tomo said, noticing Vek's expression upon seeing the old ship.

"You aren't going to prove anything for a while, maybe a few weeks, if you can stand living around each other that long, fine. I got room enough for another person on my ship." Vek smiled sinisterly and looked at each woman.

Kagura stepped forward, "I'll go on your ship." Vek's smile faltered for a second, he hadn't expected any of them to accept his offer. "Do you have enough supplies?" Vek's smile faded more as he realized what he had done to himself.

"Yeah ... I have enough for us" Vek said, annoyed that he would have to share his stash with this woman. Vek turned around and climbed back into his ship, once his back was turned his faded smile turned into a frown. Kagura smiled at her crew mates and followed Vek onto his ship.

The _Thunder Horse_ was in much better condition than the _Neko-Koneko_. It was clean, everything was neat and tidy"Wow, you're pretty anal-retentive" Kagura commented upon seeing how tidy his ship was.

"I like a neat ship, what's wrong with that?" he returned.

"Nothing. I just didn't expect a mercenary to be such a good house keeper".

"I'm not, I just put stuff where I know I can find them. I can't cook if that helps? What about you, you cook?"

"I can make a few things, but living on a Dreadnought almost all my adult life, I never really had to cook my own meals."

The two sat down in the bridge. There was a single pilot seat, there was a large console all around it, forming a horseshoe shape. Vek sat down and typed in a few things. A large hologram of the ship appeared in front of him and he showed Kagura were everything was.

"The living quarters are down that staircase over there" Vek pointed at a spiral staircase leading down in the corner of the room. "Everything you'll need is down there. The double bed is mine, you can sleep on a couch or something."

"What a gentleman." Kagura muttered loud enough for Vek to hear it.

"I'm sorry" Vek shot back sarcastically, "I didn't seriously think anyone would take me up on my offer. Most people don't like the idea of being locked in a ship with a mercenary, they prefer us to be on own ships, as far away from them as possible" Vek explained as he transferred the coordinates of the mining colony to the _Neko-Koneko_.

"Why? Do you have a habit of turning on people in their sleep?" Kagura asked, her voice didn't have any hint of fear, but inside she was wondering if she had made the right choice. She was looking out of the forward windows, down on her friends entering their ship when sudden realization washed over her.

"Dammit, I forgot. Tomo's going to have all the junk food to herself." Kagura thought out loud.

"Don't worry, I got plenty of it. How much could she go through in three hours, anyway?" Vek said as he checked his cargo hold. "Which one is Tomo again?" Vek looked up.

"She's the one a little shorter than me with the short hair." Kagura answered. The doors of the _Neko-Koneko_ shut and the gravity tethers moved the ship into position. The _Thunder Horse_ followed the larger vessel out of the station.

"Anyway, I _am_ a mercenary. I kill people and blow stuff up for money, you can understand why people don't want to be locked airtight in with us." Vek explained. The ships passed through the final tunnel and drifted through space. Vek opened a channel to the _Neko-Koneko._

"Ok, wait for me to warp first then follow. It should take us about three minutes to get there and be ready for an attack, these guys are a bit touchy about who they let dock, I'll let them know you're with me, that should keep their guns quiet" Vek spoke to the _Neko-Koneko_ which drifted a few dozen metres away.

"Rodger that. We will see you at the colony" came Sakaki's reply over the speaker.

Vek typed in his destination and the ship automatically manoeuvred into place. Kagura had wandered down the staircase to the ship's living quarters, which were actually quite nice. There was a thick carpet on the floor, a large holo-screen, big windows on either side. There was a bar in one corner and a set of weights. There was an open door that led to a spacious bedroom, the bed was unmade and the walls were adorned with posters of ships, maps and scenery.

She returned to the commanding floor, "Quite a bachelor pad you have done there" she remarked "I didn't think a warship would have such sweet accommodations".

"It didn't. I added that after I bought this beauty. This isn't just a warship, it's my home." Vek answered looking around the room.

"How long have you been a mercenary?" Kagura sat on the floor next to Vek.

"Umm, about three years. How long have been a .... um .... whatever you are" Vek said, looking down at Kagura.

"I'm a fighter pilot, I fly Merlins." Kagura replied, laughing a little inside.

"Merlins? Excellent ships, I flew one of them once. How long have you been a fighter? By the way; hold onto something we're about to warp." Vek warned.

The ship lurched forward, the hull rumbled as the bubble formed, then a powerful boom echoed through the ship and the ride was smooth.

"I've been a fighter ever since I graduated the Federation Military College, that was three years ago. Then I joined the Hammer of Thor and stayed on that until a few hours ago. Now I'm helping my old captain escape capture, I never thought I'd end up like this, let me tell you."

Vek nodded, his attention had shifted to the view in front of him. He watched the warp bubble begin to break down and the ship began to rumble. The blurry colours were suddenly replaced by the sharp lines and hard light. The mining colony was a small space station built into a massive asteroid. Large bridges held several smaller asteroids in place and attached the to the station. Even from hundreds of kilometres away they could see how the station had grown into the rock as chunks were mined and processed. Colonies like this were hot beds of crime, smugglers and pirates often stayed over before jumping into Fed space. Drugs were a common substance out here, dealers, junkies, developers, every stage of drug production could be contained within one station.

Miners lived hard lives and drug and alcohol abuse were often the only way out of their bleak existence.

Vek opened a channel with Sakaki, "Okay, Sakaki. Just follow me in, if they ask who you are with; tell them you're with Ike". Sakaki sent a confirmation message.

Kagura was slightly confused, "Is your name Ike?"

"I never said it was. That's the name I go by on this station. Here's some advise: if someone gives you anything, don't accept it. There aren't many women on these stations and none in your condition, so watch your back." Vek advised. He led Kagura down to the living room and opened a cabinet.

Inside was a collection of weapons of all calibres and designs. Kagura suddenly realized how serious he had been about the danger of these places if he was going in so heavily armed. One gun caught her attention, an old revolver. There seemed to be no curves on the gun, only the cylinder which held eight rounds. It was a Hell Burst Magnum. An infamous weapon that had been discontinued after only a few months of production, as a result they were extremely rare. It packed one hell of a punch for it's size, some people said it could punch right through starship glass, something that was near impossible. Kagura had wanted to fire one of those beasts for years and now it was laying before her, she hoped Vek would be dishing out fire arms to her and the others.

"I'll take that one" Kagura said, quickly pointing at the Hell Burst. Vek looked at her, his eye brow cocked.

"They don't allow weapons on board. Defiantly not that one. One accidental discharge and you've poked a hole through the hull. No. You get this..." Vek opened a draw and pulled out a purple blade. It was curved and made out of one solid piece of a strange material. It was light in her hands, so light she was worried about snapping it in half. She ran her finger along the blade to check it's sharpness, she only got an inch along before her skin split and blood poured out.

She dropped the blade and clutched her hand as the blood continued to flow. "Whoa, what the hell is up with my finger!? It won't stop bleeding!".

Vek rolled is eyes. "It's covered in an anticoagulant. It will stop bleeding in half an hour or so." Vek examined her hand, which was now nearly covered in her sanguine fluid.

"Half and hour?! I'll be dead by then at this rate!" Kagura was getting scared, had she just accidentally killed herself?

"That's the idea." Vek replied, his calm was disturbing. He removed a bottle of blue liquid from the same draw. He dabbed it on her cut and the blood stopped immediately. "This will fix it. Now don't cut yourself again, this stuff's hard to come by".

"Thanks, is this the only one you have?" Kagura picked up the blade again, holding it by the handle, keeping the sharp edge well away from her body.

"No, I got a few more for the others and myself. I'm hoping we won't have to use them, but who knows if some guy's going to try his luck" Vek warned. "Keep that hidden, if they find it, they'll confiscate it and throw you off the station."

Kagura slipped the blade under the rim of her trousers next to her belt, the handle was hidden behind her shirt. It pressed into her and she ran her hand over it to see if it stuck out, she was surprised when she felt almost nothing, she saw the material had flattened itself against her body. She pulled it out and it reshaped into the original form. "This an awesome knife, I've never seen anything like it before."

"Yeah, it's expensive too so don't lose it or you're buying me a replacement."

They returned to the bridge and watched the station move slowly closer. Vek sent the required information and the two ships were pulled into the hanger. The hanger was different from other hangers on stations. It was a long tunnel with platforms every kilometre, the ships that occupied the hanger dwarfed the two freelancer vessels. Even Yomi was impressed by their size, some reached two kilometres in length much like the _Hammer of Thor_, but these were cargo freighters hauling thousands of tons of ore out to distant stars.

The ships docked and the crews disembarked. Yomi and Tomo had changed into more casual clothes, Yomi was wearing some of Sakaki's clothes, which were a little baggy on her, but good enough. Tomo was wearing some of Ayumu's clothes which were a little small and tight.

"Okay, first of all; I don't want all of you coming with us. This is a dangerous place and you guys are especially at risk, so some of you are going to stay on the ship." Vek had only just finished his sentence when Tomo leapt forward.

"I'm coming with you so don't try to get rid of me!" she yelled out, echoing through the long hanger. Yomi put her face in her palms then looked up at Vek.

It's easier to just let her come along, Vek. If you fight her she'll only push harder." she advised. Vek was nervous to give the hyperactive one any thing that even resembled a weapon, he didn't think he had enough coagulant to fix all the wounds this one could inflict.

Ayumu and Chiyo backed out of the mission, which was a relief for Vek. He doubted they could defend themselves from any attacker even with his special knives.

So Vek was stuck with the older members of the motley crew. He handed them each a purple blade, hesitating when he came to Tomo, but handing over the knife eventually. He had the bottle of coagulant in his pocket just in case.

"Okay. Follow me, don't look any of the miners in the eye and if someone grabs for you hit their hand away, if you do nothing they'll see you as weak and an easy target. If you get attacked, slash for the face, the blade will take care of them and seeing a bloody face will make the others think more before trying it again. Let me do all the talking, they know me." Vek explained. Except for Tomo, the others listened carefully.

He led them to the security check point. They each walked through a metal detector and had a guard pad them down for any non-metal weapons. This is were the materials special qualities paid off. Tomo stood with her arms out and legs spread s the female guard ran her hands across her. As her hands moved over Tomo's hips, Tomo felt she needed to say something, "Feel something you like?" she asked the guard with a smirk. The guard returned a look of mild disgust and anger at Tomo.

They were allowed to pass through. Vek moved swiftly down the dark and dingy corridors that led to his contact on this station. Vek led them to a bar called "Last Call". Of course. Where else would Vek's contact be? Bars seemed to be the perfect place to find people.

The group of women sat at one of the tables, around them several worn and tired looking men kept their heads down and their focus on the drink in front of them. Vek was talking to the bar tender.

"Quite a far cry from the Hammer, eh, Tomo?" Yomi muttered, her voice sounded very loud in the quiet room.

"There is a stain on the ceiling" Tomo pointed out in an uncharacteristically flat tone. The short conversation died and the women turned their attention to the table. Vek joined them, hunching over to tell them something.

"Okay, my friend tells me that the guy we're looking for said something about staying on the forth residential floor, he can't give us a room number but there are only a few people who don't work here that live on that floor. So it shouldn't be too hard to find him." He told them.

They were taken down yet another dark corridor with several smaller hallways breaking off it. Pipes lined the walls the whole way, steam would burst out every few minutes. It was hot too, the stations ventilation wasn't working properly, which left the air stagnant and hot. Sweat was forming on all of them as they made their way through the labyrinth of passages.

*

None of them knew of the stalker that had been following them since they left the bar, waiting for his time to strike. He jumped from shadow to shadow as he followed them, slowly getting closer. His target was the short one, but she too close to the big guy, the easiest target would have to be the tallest woman, she was at the back of all of them and they were approaching his trap.

*

The corridor was getting very narrow in this section. They were standing in almost single file with Vek leading them. Every dozen or so metres there was an offshoot of the corridor that led to almost total darkness. They could only begin to guess what was down them, some small system that needed easy access or something like that.

Yomi was at the end of the group, she had this feeling of being followed, but passed it off as paranoia brought on by the claustrophobic environment. Her fears were realized when a pair of hands grabbed her, one covered her mouth the other grabbed her hands and held them together. In less than a second she was pulled down one of those dark offshoots and pulled into a large, well light room. The room was like none she had seen on this station, it was made of the light green metal usually reserved for luxury cruisers and high class buildings. It had no business on a back water mining colony. But the unusual decoration the room was the lest of her concerns at the moment.

Yomi broke a hand free from his grip and pulled the purple blade out but fumbled and the blade fell from her hand. Her attacker threw her onto the floor hard, her glasses fell off and hit the ground, a crack shot through the glass. The attacker kicked the blade away from her. Yomi turned over and saw her attacker. A middle aged man, aged beyond his years. He was big, Yomi could see his muscles clearly defined, despite her impaired vision, her body was boosting all her senses to help her escape. An evil grin graced his face, Yomi knew in a instant what he wanted. She scrambled for the blade that lay only a few meters away.

He grabbed her ankle and pulled her towards him and away from her only weapon. He pushed her down on the floor, his hand pressed hard into her back holding her down. His free hand slid up her inner leg and the urgency of getting her knife back became all the clearer to her.

"No ones coming for you, girlie" the man said, his voice was close, his head was directly above Yomi's as he continued to grope her. His hand had slid across her hips and towards her chest which was still pressed into the floor. Yomi used her natural flexibility and brought her leg up and kicked him between the legs, pushing him forward. His hands moved to prevent his face colliding with the cold floor. Yomi slid down through his knees and scrambled to her feet, but he grabbed her ankle again and brought her down. Her knife only just out of reach.

He was angry now, his face snarled up in rage. He turned her over and punched her in the stomach, making her cry out in pain. She fought back, punching him in the face, but was absorbing the blows and they were having little effect on him. He grabbed her throat and pushed her face to the side while he tore at the weak material on her shirt. He tore the shirt apart revealing her bra beneath. Yomi knew she had to do something before he went any further.

He was groping her and his face had a wicked grin plastered across it. Yomi pushed his face up and punched his throat hard. His strength faltered and Yomi pushed her advantage, grabbing his head and forcing it down onto the metallic floor as hard as she could. He was stunned and Yomi pushed him off her and got her feet. He jumped up and lunged for her. Yomi kicked him in the stomach and he collapsed to his knees. Yomi grabbed the knife off the floor and turned around, he was standing again. Yomi swung the blade at him, but he grabbed her hand and twisted it, pulling her down. She managed to hold onto the blade but couldn't use it. She summoned every bit of strength in her adrenaline pumped body and smashed her elbow into the face of her attacker. She heard something crack and felt something warm and sticky on her elbow.

Blood spurted from his broken nose and flooded his sinuses. He was clutching his face as blood poured out, Yomi did a round house kick to the chest that sent him flying for a metre before crashing to the floor. Yomi fell to her knees next to him and plunged the blade into his chest, cutting through his clothes and between ribs to it's target: The heart. She pulled it out and plunged in again and again until he stopped moving. Droplets of blood were splashed against her face and chest.

She looked at the lifeless corpse she had created, she had killed people before with nothing more than a word, but now she had killed a man up close, watched as he died. This was no symbol on a hologram, it was a bloody piece of meat. The blade was lodged in his chest, standing tall like a statue dedicated to the death on this man. Yomi slid away to the corner, realization of what had just happened hitting her like a grav-train. She pulled what was left of her shirt across her exposed cleavage and sat there with her knees pulled up to her chest.

She could hear people running, was it her friends searching for her or his friends coming to see what happened...?

*

(A/N) I didn't actually plan for Yomi to be attacked, but I needed to justify the knives and I realised there hadn't been an action scene in a while, so I figured I'd show that Yomi can be tough as well as smart when she had be.


	6. Vek Interviews

Vek Interviews

Vek led the group through the hot corridor. His heavy coat and gloves were a mistake in retrospect, he was getting very warm and didn't want to stay down here much longer.

"Damn it's warm down here, I'll never understand why they put the lifts all the way down here. It just escapes me." Vek commented.

Behind him Kagura offered her opinion, "The architect must have been a spaz".

Behind her, Tomo gave her opinion on the temperature, "I'll bet you're suffering the most, Yomi. Seeing how you have that layer of blubber ....." Tomo was waiting for Yomi's palm to slap her across the head, when it didn't come she got worried. "Yomi? You still there?" She turned around and only saw the corridor. "Guys! Yomi's missing" she said. Worry was rising in her voice.

Vek and Kagura spun around, Vek could see over the heads of the two women, Yomi was missing and that was never good in stations like these. "Oh, crap. Okay, someone must have dragged her down one of the smaller corridors, we have to search them. We have to be quick, whatever situation she's in, it won't be nice." Vek ordered.

The three split up and looked down each of the small offshoots. Most of them ended in dead ends, but some led to large rooms that had no apparent purpose. It was agonizingly slow, having to search each small corridor, all the time Yomi was getting deeper into trouble. Tomo jumped from one corridor to the next, searching for her friend. Finally she found an empty room, made of the greenish metal that Yomi's bedroom had been made out of. In the middle of the room was a man laying on his back, a pool of blood forming around him. A purple blade standing from his chest.

In the corner of the room, curled up against the wall, was Yomi. Tomo rushed to her side and wrapped her arms around her. "Yomi, are you okay?" she asked, scared that something terrible had happened to her.

Yomi looked into Tomo's eyes and returned the hug. "Yeah, I'm fine, Tomo. I ... killed him him before he could do anything" Yomi replied, her voice was calm and steady. She stood up. As soon as Tomo realized her affection wasn't needed she immediately returned to her normal self.

"Yeah, of course you are!" Tomo smacked Yomi on the back hard.

Vek walked in, followed by Kagura. He knelt down next to the body of the dead man. He checked his pulse, it was gone. "He's dead" Vek noted, he tapped the blade, it didn't move as it was deeply planted inside the man's chest. "Very dead." Vek yanked the blade from the man, there was a crack as the bone was split. "I'm impressed Yomi, that was quiet a good stab, you hit the same spot most of the time and you went through the ribs, that last one was real nasty, right through the bone, it even scratched the blade. Look at that" Vek showed the small scratches on the blade to Kagura.

Vek flicked the blade and most of the blood came off, a second flick and the blade was as clean as new. He handed it back to Yomi, who took it and placed it in her belt. "Thanks." Yomi didn't make eye contact. Vek noticed her ripped shirt.

He removed his coat and took off his shirt, revealing his vest underneath. Kagura caught a quick glimpse of some tattoos. He handed the shirt to Yomi who hesitated for a second but accepted his offer. No one wanted to bring up Yomi's experience, there would be plenty of time for that later. Vek led them down the corridor, everyone's guard was raised. Finally they reached the lifts. "If I ever meet the guy who put these damn lifts all the way over here, I'm going to punch him." Yomi claimed, they took the lifts up to the forth residential floor, which was much more comfortable. Cool and spacious.

"Okay, they guy we're looking for is about five feet tall, blond hair and he might have a speech impediment" Vek said, it was a vague description but it was all he had. "Most of the residents should be at work now, if you find the guy we're looking for; push him into his room and wait for us to arrive."

Vek knocked on a door and was greeted by a butch looking woman. "Um...Hi. I'm looking for a guy, blond hair about this tall ... Do you know where he lives" Vek asked.

The woman looked him up and down, a distasteful look on her face. She pointed at a door several rooms down. Then slammed the door shut in his face. "Thank you." Vek muttered.

He snapped his fingers to get the others attentions. They joined him and spoke in a low voice. "Okay, here's the plan: Kagura will knock on the door ..." Vek started.

"Why me?" Kagura asked, cutting off Vek.

"Because if he sees a pretty face on the other side he's more likely to open the door. If he saw _my_ face he might think I'm trouble and if he saw the captain of the ship he just crashed on the other side he would _know_ he's in trouble." Vek explained, his eyes fixed on Kagura's, his voice held mild annoyance.

"Anyway, Kagura: Flash a smile or something and he'll open the door. Push him into the room and we'll be right behind you. I'll take care of the rest." Vek explained.

Kagura stood in front of the door, practising her expression. "Should I go more cute or sexy?" she thought. She decided on cute. She knocked the door and saw some movement behind the spyhole, she smiled and bit her finger. There was a short delay and the door creaked open, she could see the man they were after. He was a fairly normal looking man, you wouldn't guess that he was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. He opened the door wider to get a better view of the beauty standing in front of his door.

He opened the door all the way, his eyes moved down to Kagura's legs. She took advantage of this and pounced. Shoving him hard and taking him by surprise. He fell onto his back, hitting his head on the floor. He looked up, dazed. Kagura stepped over him into the room. Vek followed and grabbed the dazed man, dragging him into the kitchen. Blackness consumed the man's sight as unconsciousness washed over him.

When he awoke, he was tied to a chair and duct tape covered him mouth. He looked up and saw a lean man in a trench coat sitting on the counter in front of him. There was a woman too, he had never seen either of these people before. He could sense more people in the room but couldn't see them. The woman saw he was awake and informed the others. The man stepped forward and pulled out a purple blade.

As he approached he had a murderous look of his face, but it suddenly switched to a diabolical grin. He held the blade in front of the man's face, "This blade is coated in a powerful anticoagulant, one small knick and you'll bleed to death, but not before we can get some info out of you." the tall man explained.

"Now, let's begin. Did you hijack the Hammer of Thor and crash it into the AC – 3 Station?"

The man shook his head violently from side to side, Vek pulled off the tape covering his mouth, taking a good amount of hair and skin with it. "Ow! No! It wasn't me!" the man pleaded.

"Then who was it? Someone had to have done it." Vek asked calmly.

"I don't know, wasn't it the Ca-captain, went crazy and cra-cra-crashed the ship!" he stuttered.

Vek shook his head slowly, "Don't lie to me. We both know that the ship computer would override a command like that. Now tell me how you did it." Vek ordered.

"It wasn't me you psyc-psychopath! Why won't you believe me? You should be looking for the Captain, she'll tell you what to know." he yelled in Vek's face, clearly scared. Vek looked up at Yomi who was standing behind the bound man. She moved round so the man could see her. As his eyes set on her, his face went pale and his jaw began to shake.

Vek spoke again, trying to suppress laughter at the man's expression, "I already have. Now are you going to cooperate or must I start breaking fingers?"

Okay, okay. I'll co-cooperate. I was on the sh-sh-ship when it crashed but I had no-nothing to do with it, I don't know why it cr-cr-crashed!" The man's stutter was getting worse as he got more nervous.

Vek rolled his eyes. Taking the man's middle finger is his hand. "Don't lie to me again. You were boasting a bar on GH – 7. I heard you so don't try and bullshit me here." Vek warned, he hand bent them man's finger to as far as it would naturally go, one quick movement and he would snap it back.

"Th-that wasn't me. I've ne-never be-bee-been to GH – 7! I ha-have no idea wh-what yo-you're talking about!" The man was panicking now. Vek let out a sigh and snapped the man's finger back, there was an audible crack as the finger was torn from it's socket. The prisoner screamed in pain.

"Tell me what you did! I've got nine more fingers and all the time in the world." Vek said calmly, but his eyes showed his growing impatience.

"It wasn't me, I don't kn-know anyth-th-thing about computers!" the man cried out. Vek caught the mistake the man had made.

"I never said anything about computers. Stop lying to me, man!" Vek snapped another finger causing another cry of pain. "You can make this all stop. Just tell me what I need to know."

"Fi-fine. I was pa-pa-pa Paid, to crash the ship. Th-th-they promised I wo-would never be cau-caught. The-they gave me fi-five -mill-milli, million to do it. I'm sor-sorry, just stop bre-breaking my fi-fingers" the man cried out, finally giving some information that was useful.

Vek pushed his advantage. "Who? Who paid you to crash the ship!?" Vek demanded. Holding another finger in position to break it.

The man hesitated, he knew had given out too much already, but his hand was screaming agony at him. "It wa-was the Tr-tri-Systems Cor-corpoati-tio-tion." his stutter was getting was getting really bad, almost every word had to be forced out.

"That's easy for you to say." Tomo spoke out, grabbing the attention of everyone in the room. Tomo broke into laughter, "I'm sorry, hahahaha, I couldn't resist. I've been holding that in for ages now" she said while fighting back her laughter.

Vek switched back to his prisoner, "Why would Tri-Systems want a station destroyed!" Vek demanded.

"I-I don't know. I ju-just got pa-paid to up-upload a virus, I did-din't know what wo-wou-would happen. I swear! I thou-thought they were going got steal it!" The man's face scrunched up in pain.

As Vek continued to interview the man. Yomi had taken Tomo outside to calm down and to escape the torture inside. They could still hear the cries of agony and Vek's authoritative voice within, but it was muffled by the walls.

"Tomo, this isn't funny. That man is being tortured!" Yomi said firmly, folding her arms and giving Tomo a disapproving glare.

"Calm down, Yomi. Maybe you're forgetting that he's responsible for the deaths of thousands of people and he got us into this mess." Tomo fired back at her friend, "How could you have forgotten that?"

"I didn't forget, Tomo. It just still seems so unreal. I can't believe it only happened yesterday. So much has happened." Yomi leaned on a wall, holding her head. She hadn't slept since her escape and it was hitting her hard now.

"I know, Yomi. But look; We've already got a great start on our search. I'll bet by the end of the week, we would have proved your innocence and we'll all be happy." Tomo spoke in her cheery voice.

Tomo patted her friend on the back, "By the way; I was right. Someone _did_ put a virus into the computer that made the ship crash. Ha! You didn't believe me and I was right.!" Tomo began dancing in victory over Yomi.

Yomi was a good sport about it and replied with sarcasm instead of violence, "Yup, you sure were right, Tomo. You're getting good at this, maybe one day you'll even be able to do things right on purpose instead of luck".

Tomo ignored her sarcasm and continued her dance of victory. Inside the apartment, Vek was finished with his interrogation. He snapped the man's swollen, broken fingers back into place, causing another cry of pain. The man was exhausted and his head hung loosely.

"What should we do with him?" Kagura asked, who had been silent during the interrogation, her hand had covered her mouth as she watched Vek force out the information.

"Well, we can't leave him here. We're going to bring him with us so he can testify in court." Vek was tugging his beard and watching the limp man. "But we have to be careful, last thing we need is his corp buddies showing up."

Yomi looked down the long hallway, she could see some people at the far end. They were too far way to see clearly, but she could vaguely make out what they were wearing. There were three people, a woman leading two men. The women was in a sleek business suit, briefcase in hand. At her flanks were two men in combat gear, semi-automatics clearly visible. This would not end well. Yomi grabbed Tomo and pulled her into the apartment.

"Vek, I think we have a problem." Yomi said. Vek looked up and stuck his head out the door. There was dull thud and a section of the wall next to Vek's head exploded. Vek jumped back into the room, his footing lost he collapsed the floor.

"Yeah, a serious problem, close the door quickly!" he ordered to Tomo. Tomo punched the door control and the door slid shut. Vek jumped to his feet. "I think his friends just showed up. We have to get out of here."

"How? That's the only way out!" Yomi said, the sound of the attackers just outside the door trying to open the door instilled a sense of urgency in all of them. Vek looked around. No windows to jump out of, no back doors.

He swiftly moved into the bathroom and looked around franticly. There was a loud screeching sound as Vek ripped a vent off the wall and looked inside. It was a long way down, but it could get them out of there. "Okay. We have to slid down this vent for a few floors and then get back to the ships. It'll only take a few minutes for those guys to get through so we have get going now!" Vek ordered, pointing at the dark hole in the wall.

No one moved for a second, trying to figure out if he was serious or not. Another dull thud sounded as another shot was fired at the door. Kagura was the first to step forward, climbing into the vent and gripping the greasy piping. She lowered herself down the shaft, inching her way down to another opening.

Tomo was the second down, much more eager than Kagura had been to jump down a near bottomless shaft. Her grip on the pipes wasn't as strong and she slipped down a metre before Kagura could act as platform for Tomo stand on while she got a proper grip.

"Get your feet off my face, you bloody idiot!" She yelled, while Tomo's shoes pushed her face to the side.

"Don't complain, Kagura. If I mash up your face a little it could be an improvement on the mess you've been wearing for the last twelve years!" Tomo yelled back down, moving her feet to mash the soles of her boots into Kagura's face.

"Come down here and say that, you little ..." Kagura began, only top interrupted by Vek's thunderous voice echoing down to them.

"Ladies! Continue this discussion later, we are short of time up here" Vek shouted, his voice artificially calm.

Yomi came down next, forcing Tomo and Kagura down. Her damaged glasses hung off her face, sliding over the sweat that reformed. She flicked her head back to keep them on. Vek slid down as well, he yelled down at Kagura to find a vent so they could get out of the shaft where even the air felt greasy. Kagura found a vent, she forced it open with her back, he hands still fixed on the piping. After a few bashes, it fell open and Kagura threw herself backwards through it. In the apartment they had just escaped, the bodyguards had finally broken through, only to be greeted by an unconscious agent and little else.

A quick scan of the room, revealed their escape route. One of the guards fired two rounds down the shaft to clear it, but heard no evidence of a hit. The team four had all escaped the shaft just in time and were making their way through the corridor that led back to the hanger. Each one of them sweaty and greasy. Before long they were back in their respective ships.

Tomo and Yomi stepped onto the Neko-Koneko, sweat dripping off them. As soon as Sakaki saw them, her eyes opened wide, "What happened to you?" she asked, in a very uncharacteristically loud voice. The two slumped down on a couch, Yomi was the first to speak.

"Long story." She aid, her eyes were closed as her body tried to force into shut down.

*

In the apartment of the man who's fingers Vek had recently broken and reset. The blond man had awoken from his pain induced sleep, he was still tied to the chair, but now he faced an angry looking business woman with hair tied back to tight it doubled as a facelift. Her expression was one of anger and like she had just sucked a particularly sour lemon.

"What did you tell them?" she demanded, her voice as firm and cold as her face.

"Nothing, I swear. They tried to break me, but I out lasted them" he gasped out, happy to see a familiar face, if it did belong to a woman made of stone.

"No, no you didn't. And are you going to tell anyone else?" she asked, her eyes flicked to the body guards flanking the bound man.

"No! Of course not." he replied, shocked that she would even consider that he would.

The woman faced the guards, "Make sure he doesn't." she ordered. Turning her back, she left.

"No, no please don't" The man begged as one of the guards stood in front of him and aimed his gun at the man's chest at point blank range. There was a light blue flash from the muzzle of the gun and a dull thud as the bullet ripped through the pathetic meat and bone of the man as well as the back of the chair, blasting gore across the floor behind the prisoner. The chair fell backwards into the gore and the man lay there, lifeless. The guards left and followed their boss.

*

Kagura and Vek boarded his ship and both collapsed onto the first seat they could find. Vek took the captains seat while Kagura settled for the steps in front of the captain's console. They were silent for a second.

"I need a shower." Kagura finally broke the silence.

"Down the stairs, it's attached to the bedroom" Vek instructed without opening his tired eyes. His console bleeped as a message came through, he opened it up and was greeted by Sakaki's confused face on the hologram before him.

"Miss Ishikawa, how may I help you?" he asked in a lazy manner, he was slouched in his seat and his eyes were half closed.

"What happened on the station? Yomi and Tomo told me you were attacked?" she half asked, half told.

Vek exhaled forcefully, "Um....Yeah. That's pretty much what happened. We found out that Tri-Systems are involved and that a virus was responsible for the ship trying to dock in the station." Vek informed his fellow captain. While Vek filled Sakaki in on the events of their little excursion, Kagura had found the shower.

She stripped off her fighter jump suit she had been wearing for the last day and stepped into the warm, real water shower. Washing away the sweat and grime she had collected over the last few hours, she was sure half of it alone had come from that vent shaft. When she was done, she felt like she had shed several layers of skin, her dirty clothes were on the floor and now she had nothing to wear. She searched through Vek's wardrobe and managed to scape together a decent outfit.

*

Yomi and Tomo had to settle for a sonic shower, even though it had nothing to do with sound, it seemed to work in cleaning them of the sweat and grime. Yomi collapsed on her bed, she was clean but still felt dirty, only a true water shower could make her feel really clean, but she would live without that luxury for a while. She could feel the ship moving out into space, the artificial gravity in this ship was a little off, on her old ship she would never have noticed any movement except for sudden jolts of speed.

Her exhaustion hit her hard, her eye lids were heavy and her muscles ached. She shut her eyes and allowed the peace of sleep to embrace her. She only had a few minutes of peace before Tomo arrived to fill her role in Yomi's life. Tomo jumped onto the bed, bouncing Yomi a foot into the air and awakening her to her moment of terror. Yomi scrambled in the air, her tired mind trying to figure out why it was levitating before it slammed back down on the old mattress. Yomi's face was frozen in terror for second as she tried to work out what had just happened, she looked to her side and saw a grinning Tomo, answering all her questions.

Yomi was tired, her mind was begging for her to let it rest, but that couldn't stop Yomi from getting revenge. She clutched Tomo's face in her hands and pulled apart, stretching her features into a comedic pose. Tomo fought back, trying to clutch Yomi's face to no avail. Yomi eventually let go, falling back into her sleeping position.

"Leave me alone, Tomo. I'm really tired and I need to sleep." Yomi begged, while Tomo rubbed her face to relieve the pain. Tomo didn't reply, she was tired too and lay down next to her friend.

"We're about to warp, guys. So hold on." Sakaki's voice announced over the speaker in their room. The vibrating ship pushed the two women into sleep on the bed. Although it was only eight in the evening Federation Standard Time, most of the crew was exhausted. Chiyo and Ayumu had spent the day fine tuning the ships systems and Sakaki had helped, but all three were pretty worn out from the difficult previous day.

The two ships dropped from warp in a small asteroid field. The ships attached them selves to one of the largest asteroids in the field and put their ships into base operating mode. This made them near invisible to all but the most powerful scanners, but only life support and internal power would function. Both crews were settling in for the night. There was nothing they could do for the rest of the day. They knew who they had to find, but how they would go about it was a very different matter and would require more resources that an old cruiser and a merc frigate.

So both ships hovered a few feet off the surface of the asteroid. The light of the distant star cut across them, casting long sharp shadows across the dull rock. Inside the _Thunder Horse,_ Kagura was testing Vek's patience further.

Vek stepped out of the bathroom. He was wearing his normal sleeping clothes, loose shirt and jeans. An unusual get-up but he couldn't care. He was shaking the last few drops of water from his limp mohawk when he saw Kagura sitting in his bed.

"Hey, get out! You're on the couch, remember!?" he pointed at the couch in the living room. Kagura looked up, a smile on her face.

"Well, I'm already here. You wouldn't kick a woman out of your bed, would you?" she pulled a leg out from under the covers, showing it to Vek, who's expression didn't change.

"Yeah, it's _my_ bed, so _I'm_ going to sleep in it. What's wrong with the couch? Vek asked, his eyes flickered to Kagura's smooth leg, but quickly shot back to her eyes. His expression remained one of annoyance and minor confusion.

Kagura was confused too, most guys would have given in when she flirted, which she didn't do often. She pulled the covers completely off herself, exposing the rest of her body. She was wearing blue boyshorts and a loose vest. "Come on, why can't I sleep in here and you take the couch?".

"No, now get out." Vek folded his arms, his patience was getting thin.

Kagura smiled in confusion, "What the hell is wrong with you?" She covered herself up again, "Are you gay?"

Vek looked offended, raising an eyebrow. "No. I just spend so much time away from anything sexual I've lost interest in it. Now get out!" Vek explained, trying to shoo the semi-nude, athletic girl from his bed (_A/N) How many times have you heard __**that**__!)_

"Oh. Well then you won't mind me sharing, would you?" Kagura made a cute face, trying to appeal to the asexual mercenary.

Vek squinted at her, he knew that there was no point in arguing with her. "Fine, but stay on your side of the bed." he ordered. Kagura scooted over to allow him in. He got into bed next to her and shut off the lights.

(A/N) I'm going to end it here because it seems to be dragging. The next chapter should have some story progression, but not sure on how any action will work into that. Near the end of the story will be have much longer action scenes, so keep reading and you will be rewarded. Also; I'll try to get focus more on the other characters in the next few chapters, I've been relying on Vek a little to much to get stuff done.


	7. Long way Around

Long Way Around

Ayumu was laying on her bed staring at the ceiling, lost deep in thought. Her eyes were open but her mind was disregarding any information her senses sent it. The back-water engineer was blind to the physical world around her. Inside her mind, random thoughts bounced around her skull. Every once and a while a thought would stay in place for long enough to give it a place in the real world.

"... I wonder how long I would live if I went out the airlock...?" She muttered quietly to herself, an image of a person floating through space drifted across her internal vision. There was movement in her room, but she didn't pick up on it until the sound of a door sliding open snapped out of her trance. Vision suddenly returning to her. She blinked as her eyes adjusted to the soft light of the room. She sat up and saw that is was only her room-mate, Chiyo, opening the closet "Hi, Chiyo" she smiled.

"Hi, Ayumu." Chiyo greeted, her smile in it's usual place. Chiyo was dressed in her pyjamas from the night before. She sat down next to Ayumu on the bed. "How are you this 'morning'" she asked.

Ayumu yawned, her mind had been in a mild state of shut down and was beginning to awake. "Pretty good. I dreamed about ... cheese" she said softly and slowly. Chiyo bobbed her head in acknowledgement.

"Were we on a mining station yesterday?" Ayumu asked after a moment of silence.

"We weren't, but the others went on. Don't you remember?" Chiyo asked, in was a mostly rhetorical question, it always took Ayumu a few minutes to separate her memories from her dreams.

Ayumu nodded slowly, her mind quickly arranged itself correctly and the conversation started properly. The two girls talked as they got dressed. Ayumu wore a pink dress that reached just below her knees and a cream sweater, hardly an appropriate outfit seeing how she spent a lot of time up ladders or on her back fixing something, but on a ship full of females, it wasn't really a problem. Chiyo wore some black jeans and a wine red shirt.

They met Sakaki in the kitchen/living-room/dining room. They settled in with the usual meal of highly nutritious 'grey matter' as it was known. The grey sludge had little to no flavour but it had everything spaceship crews needed and it was cheap too, perfect for the freelancers. Koyomi and Tomo joined them moments later, the dreadnought crew was used to a superior breakfast meal, so this basic sludge was ... different, to say the least. Yomi kept quiet while Tomo played with it and made various comments about it's texture and colour.

"You eat this stuff?" Tomo asked as she watched it slip off her spoon and splat into the bowl.

"It lubricates the doors better than it tastes, but we survive" Sakaki informed them, showing a rare shred of humour in the normally quiet women. She had been in a better mood for the last day. Ayumu was the only one who didn't know why and no one was willing to enlighten her.

"Huh! Well, I have a special something hidden away, so I'm going to crack that opened." Tomo announced as she stood up and left the room, leaving the others mildly confused and Yomi seriously worried.

Chiyo picked up on Yomi's worry, "Is something wrong, Yomi?" she asked timidly.

"Yeah. When ever Tomo has 'something' hidden away, it's either really bad or extremely bad. We had better investigate" Yomi stood up and swiftly went after Tomo. Chiyo and Ayumu followed too, leaving Sakaki alone in the dining room. She looked around, the gentle hum of the ships systems and her own heart beat were the only sounds. She continued to eat the grey matter.

Tomo walked briskly down the corridor. The metal grating on the floor clanged as she walked over it towards the cargo hold. She searched around the large, cold room. Looking around the dull containers for the three dark monoliths she had stolen yesterday. Finally she found them, standing separate from the rest of the containers in a dark corner.

She found a small console on the side of the first container. She hit a button and the container split into four pieces. There was a hiss as the top two pieces moved apart, displaying a treasure trove of loot in the form of crisps (potato chips), chocolate bars, multicoloured candies of dozens of brands. Everything from salty to sour was inside this container.

Tomo rubbed her chin as she thought over her choice, she decided on a bag of sour worms. There were footsteps behind her, she quickly shut the container to keep her horde to herself. She still held the packet in her hand, she had to hide it quickly. Using the first place she could think of, she slid the small bag of sour worms down her top. It wasn't the best spot, but would do. The packet was still visible through her shirt.

*

Vek was sleeping on his side, facing the wall. Slowly he was brought into the waking world. The first sensation that ran through him was comfort and warmth, the usual feelings anyone had when they woke up. Then a new feeling ran through him. There was an arm on him, he could rolled over and saw the sleeping, drooling Kagura next to him. She had rolled over and put an arm around him while he slept. He removed her arm and crawled from bed.

She stirred and her eyes broke apart. "Morning, Vek." she grumbled as she stretched to take up as much of the bed as possible. She smiled broadly as her joints snapped into place. Vek grunted something that resembled a greeting in return.

"I slept great." Kagura said, sitting up and rubbing her eyes clear, "How about you?".

"Fine, I guess. You drooled all over my sheets and you moved around a lot in your sleep, woke up with your bloody arm around me." Vek replied as he turned on the lights that lined the room.

"Oh, sorry. I don't move around I my sleep, you were there and I just fell into that position. You're asexual, so what do you care?" She explained, a smile played across her face.

Vek eyed her suspiciously, "Yeah. I'm not completely asexual and you're making it very difficult for me." Vek opened the blinds on the windows, displaying the asteroid field outside, the hard yellow light cut sharp shadows across the smooth surface of the largest asteroid that both ships were attached to. The _Neko-Koneko_ was only a hundred metres away, sitting silently on the dull grey surface.

"Oh? So I'm dragging you back to the world of heterosexuality?" Kagura was grinning broadly, a cheeky sparkle in her eye. Vek cocked an eyebrow as he tied his boots.

He didn't answer, he fought back an embarrassed smile and left the room to end the conversation. He sat down in his captain's chair, putting his feet up on the console and dialling up the _Neko-Koneko._

Sakaki's soft voice answered, "Hey, Sakaki. We need to meet up to discuss what we're going to do now."

"Okay, can we go to a station? How are we going to do this?" She asked.

"There isn't any station around here. We could just walk over. Do you have any space suits?" Vek asked. A space suit was exactly what it sounded like, much more refined than the ancient versions first used in man's baby steps to the stars.

Sakaki's eyes light up, she had wanted to use her suit for ages, but never found a good enough reason to do so. "Yeah, I've got a suit. I'll bring over the rest of the crew with me. See you in half an hour." She hung up before Vek could complain.

"Jeez, five years without having to deal with women, then six come along all at once. And the only one that isn't insane is being hunted by the Federation." he thought, tugging his rat tail.

There were steps behind him. When Kagura came into view, Vek nearly fell from his chair. "What the hell? I let you on my ship, you eat my food, sleep in my bed and now you're wearing my clothes?!" Kagura was indeed wearing clothes from Vek's limited wardrobe. Dark blue jeans, a loose black shirt with a dirty, but humorous saying on it and big military boots that added an inch to her height. She was also wearing a necklace with a bullet hanging off it.

"I had to wear something. Or did you want me walking around in my underwear all day?" Kagura asked, sitting on the couch in front of the console.

Vek didn't answer her question. "Whatever. Your friends are coming over in a while to talk about what we're going to do."

*

Yomi was looking at Tomo's chest. "Tomo, what are you hiding down your shirt? And what are you doing down here anyway?"

Tomo covered her chest to hide the bag of sour worms. "Nothing! Why do you always think I'm up to something?!" Tomo sounded insulted.

"Because you usually are!" Yomi stepped forward. Their faces were close, Tomo was watching Yomi's eyes, hoping to read her mind and learn what her friend was about to do. Yomi quickly plunged her hand down Tomo's top and pulled out the packet of sour worms, stepping out of Tomo's range before she could snatch them back.

"Sour worms? Where did you get these?" Yomi investigated the packet closely.

"Stupid small chest" Tomo thought. "Those are mine, Yomi give 'em back!" Tomo tried to grab the bag back, but was held away by Yomi. Their little quarrel was interrupted by Sakaki announcing over the intercom.

"Everyone get to the bridge, I have something tell you."

"We'll finish this later." Yomi said, chucking the sour worms to Ayumu, who opened them began stretching them and smiling in a dopey way.

The group proceeded to the bridge where Sakaki filled them all in on the plan to walk over to the _Thunder Horse_. Before long they were all dressed in the standard space suit, a mostly smooth and plain white suit with a helmet with a large glass visor. They stood in the air lock as the atmosphere was drained.

The doors ground apart and all warmth was immediately sucked from the room, sending a shiver up the spine of all the women. Sakaki was about to step out of the ship when Tomo stopped her.

"Wait, Sakaki! I've always wanted to do this..." She stepped slowly from the ship and stepped on the hard rock of the asteroid, "That's one small step for a man ..... and one small drink and extra fries hahahaha" Tomo's laughter filled the radio. The others couldn't help but laugh a little too, even Yomi.

The group moved slowly across the surface of the massive rock. Probably the first and last people to walk it's surface. "Remember everyone: walk slow and stupid, we're in space!" Tomo advised. They were half way to the ship when Ayumu began shaking her head and clutching her helmet.

"Ayumu, are you okay?" Chiyo asked, moving over to her friend.

"Yeah" came her flat reply, "It just turns out; it's not funny at all when you fart in a space suit"

*

The team finally reached the _Thunder Horse_, much to the relief of Ayumu who's lungs were turning brown in her suit. They all sat in Vek's bachelor pad, sitting around the large holo-screen. Vek had turned the news on and all attention was absorbed by the latest headlines. On the screen, a stern looking man and woman were reporting over pictures of the mining colony the team had been on just yesterday.

"... The body of a man, supposedly murdered by the wanted terrorist Captain Koyomi Mizuhara has been found in the mining colony owned by Tri-Systems, Police are investigating any connection the man may have had with wanted Captain. The Federation has increased the bounty on her head to twelve million credits. Any valid information that can be provided must be brought forth to authorities as soon as possible..."

Vek changed the channel to another news station, a slightly more relaxed woman was speaking, "...she is believed to be travelling with several accomplices who may have assisted in the attack on Station AC – 3. Two of them have been identified as being Tomo Tankino..." A file picture of Tomo appeared on the screen,

"Hey! That's me!" Tomo yelled out, pointing at her picture.

"We know, now be quiet!" Yomi threw a pillow at the source of the outburst, smacking her across the face.

"... The second is Kagura Nakano. Both were fighter pilots on board the _Hammer of Thor_. Both were also seen with Captain Mizuhara on board the Tri-Systems Mining Colony in Section 47 – A yesterday. They were seen with an unidentified male who is currently being wanted for questioning by authorities. Witnesses also claim they were travelling with another ship going by the name of the _Neko-Koneko_..."

Vek switched off the screen, "That's what they're reporting. Twelve mil is going to attract a lot of bounty hunters to us. Worse, they have our ships tagged, so we'll have to be extremely careful when we move out, even more than usual." Vek moved around, standing in front of the screen, facing the women. "Which brings me to our plan. We know the corporation, Tri-Systems, is responsible for the attack. Why they did it; we don't know. They own offices on dozens of stations and several colonies, I have a friend who lives on one such colony, we can learn some more from him, problem is, he lives on the other side of the galaxy and we have to take the long way around, we could try going through the middle of Fed space but they'll pull us out of warp every time we try to get through, so we have to skirt the outer rim to avoid the patrols, it's going to take about a week though. If anyone has a better idea, I would love to hear it."

No one had a better suggestion. If they got caught there would be little to no hope of justice being done. Vek sat down next to a plain looking girl who was chewing a sour worm. As soon as he sat down, his rat tail beard caught and held her attention. Yomi stood up, it was her turn to speak to the group.

"Look guys, I'm sorry I dragged you into this. Now you are all being hunted by the Federation because of me." as Yomi spoke, most of the women paid attention, but Ayumu was focused solely on Vek's beard and Vek was trying his best to ignore her. She was gently tugging it and twirling it. She moved on to his short hair that covered the sides of his head around the short mohawk.

"I wish I could have a beard" Ayumu mumbled quietly, but Vek could hear it, he decided to humour her.

"How's this sound: I'll cut this one off and give it to you." he offered. Ayumu's expression changed from one of dopey joy to mild annoyance.

"Don't be stupid. I don't want your beard" she said back. Vek chuckled to himself, he had no idea how to toy with girl, but he liked her, she had a sort of honesty usually only found in small children.

Yomi sat back down, her face in her hands. Vek and Ayumu had missed her speech. The crews talked and agreed on a plan. They would warp to several points bending around the high security space. It would take about a week to reach their destination; Dust 223.

*

The two ships powered up to full functionality and detached from the rock. Each warp would take roughly a day, leaving the crews to keep themselves busy. Chiyo entertained herself with science magazines of all types. Ayumu toyed with engine components. Yomi, Tomo and Sakaki discussed whatever came to mind, keeping Tomo calm took up as much time as anything else on the ship.

On the _Thunder Horse_, Kagura continued to tempt Vek into breaking his unofficial celibacy, while Vek tried his best to ignore her.

They were watching the holo-screen, "Look, I'll wash your clothes when I'm done with them, just drop it!" Kagura begged, Vek had continued to drop hints that he was annoyed with her presence and she had tried to figure out what it was about her that annoyed him so much.

It was the third day of their voyage, everyone had become very well acquainted with each other. Vek was used to waking up with Kagura draped over him. Yomi was used to Tomo rolling around while she slept, occasionally hitting her in the face in the middle of the night.

Vek and Kagura were running short of things to talk about, so they descended to bragging and showing off. Kagura boasted her past victories, makes special note to detail each and every time she had to rescue her smaller wingman. Vek returned with tales of destruction vastly superior to whatever Kagura had done in her years with the military.

"Okay, fine. But for such an accomplished Merc, you really are skinny" Kagura said. Vek looked almost offended at that, but swiftly replied.

"I'm not 'skinny'. I'm lean." Pulling up and sleeve and tensing his muscles, he showed her how his arms morphed into a stick of pure muscle, which sounded impressive, but there was still less muscle compared to a normal soldier. Kagura noticed some writing tattooed onto his left forearm.

"Hey, what's that tattoo?" She grabbed his arm and pulled it to her to get a better look. It wasn't any language she was familiar with. "Neca eos omnes, Deus suos Agnosect? Is it French? Italian?"

Vek yanked his arm back, "Neither. It's Latin. It says 'Kill them all, God shall know his own'. I got it a while ago."

"Cool, what else do you have?" Kagura asked, eager to see what other body art the Merc was hiding.

He pulled his shirt up, above his heart was written 'No Other Destiny' and to the right of his stomach was written 'Three out of Four ain't bad'.

"Nice. What does 'three out of four' mean?" She asked, examining the black ink in his skin.

"It's a pirates promise. Four promises that pirates must keep...

I promise I'll find your trade and passenger routes...

I promise I'll overrun any ship that runs through my turf...

I promise I'll put to good use whatever I find on board ...

And, I promise no one will be hurt in the process .... Oh well, Three out of Four ain't bad" a wicked grin spread across Vek's face as he finished the rules.

"That's ... Nice? I've always wanted a tattoo, but the Federation are pretty picky in what kind you can get." Kagura said as she admired the tattoo.

"Maybe I'll get you one next time we're in a station and aren't being hunted down..."

The ship shook violently. Shaking both people from their seats, Vek could see the warp bubble outside collapsing. "Oh no, please no!" Vek muttered as he scrambled to get back to his console. Kagura hot on his heels.

From the bridge, they could see the _Neko-Koneko's_ warp bubble was collapsing too. "Oh shit." Vek thought out loud, he was quickly typing in commands and boosting various systems, but their bubble continued to break down. He got on the line with Sakaki.

"Vek! What is going on?" came her soft, but worried voice.

"I think we're being pulled from warp. We're going to hit a wall in about a minute and then someone's going to be waiting for us. It's either pirates or the Feds." he warned, he was trying his best to counter the effects of the scrambler being placed on them, but nothing was working.

*

Sakaki told the others what was happening and that a fight was likely to waiting for them. The ships vibrations were like an earthquake now, it was impressive the ship hadn't cracked apart by now. Chiyo and Ayumu rushed to their stations, Yomi and Tomo stayed on the bridge with Sakaki.

The ships hit the wall and the crews were lurched forward violently, the bubble was gone and now the ships were thrown forward by the momentum, gliding forward towards an armada. Everyone who saw the vast fleet awaiting them, nearly wet themselves. Yomi and Tomo had seen plenty of large fleet battles, but this was simply amazing. Five Mythology Class Dreadnoughts, dozens of cruisers and frigates and near one hundred fighters.

Tomo managed to mumbled out a few words, "Wow. Think they have enough ships?"

Sakaki's radio beeped as Vek called in, "Sakaki! Don't even try to fight, they'll want Koyomi alive but if you try to defend yourself, I doubt they'll have an issue blowing you to dust. Follow my lead and try not to get hit" He ordered, a set of coordinates appeared in front of her, she quickly aligned the ship to the destination.

Yomi stepped forward, "If we can get away from the scrambler we can warp out, they pulled us out to far, it's going to take a minute for them to get in range. Sakaki gunned her ship to max speed, but the fighters were bearing down on them too quickly.

"Okay, those are Merlins coming after us, try boosting your shields for laser damage!" Tomo advised.

"Ayumu, you get that?" Sakaki asked her engineer.

"Sure thing, boss." came her unusually alert reply.

The Merlins bore down quickly, releasing their golden beams of death onto the _Neko-Koneko_ and _Thunder Horse. _The ships moved at an agonizingly slow pace towards the edges of the warp scrambler. Ayumu's console was screaming shield failure at her, she felt helpless in her office. There was nothing she could do, all spare power was being diverted to the shields.

Suddenly, a yellow light began flashing, indicating shields at 10%, that number fell quickly to 0% and red light floodedthe ship. "Vek, we aren't going to make it" Sakaki spoke over a radio broadcast to Vek.

"No! Come on, armour tank until we can get out of here!" Vek yelled back at her, not willing to lose his only employer and pay check.

A Merlin was flying low towards the Neko. As it flew over the cruiser it dropped it's cargo, a Graviton Smart Bomb. The small device hovered for a second then detonated. The shock wave blasted the Neko off course and caused massive structural damage. Ayumu reported hull breeches all of the ship, the internal skeleton was fractured and it was only a matter of minutes until the ship was ripped apart.

The engines were burning, the reactor was close to bursting. The ship was in it's death throes, no one could save her now, not even the greatest engineer in the galaxy could rescue this ship from it's fate. Ayumu scrambled from the engine room and up to her captain.

"Sakaki, we're not going to make it. We have to evacuate the ship, now!" She pleaded. Sakaki didn't reply, she was moments away from loosing her ship, the vessel she had invested so much time and money was as good as dead.

Slowly she gave the order to evacuate. Rising from her seat and calmly making her way to the escape pods, behind her, Yomi, Tomo, Ayumu and Chiyo patiently followed. The pod ejected from the ship and fired off towards the looming armada, inside all was quiet.

They all knew their fates, they had all lost everything and would be facing criminal charges that would likely put them away for the rest of their lives.

*

Vek pushed his ship as hard as it would go. He had two fighters peppering his shields, his railguns firing as he tried to flee. Behind him he could see the degrading condition of the Neko. His shields weren't doing much better either. Suddenly a powerful shock wave rocked the ship, his console reported minor structural damage, but the _Neko-Koneko_ was in serious trouble, his scan revealed it was moments away from exploding as the reactor went critical.

He tried to raise Sakaki, but there was no answer. He saw the small pod jettison from the crippled cruiser. "Dammit, if they get captured I'll never see that pay check" he thought, he turned the his ship around and went in to try and snag the pod before someone else did. There was a small light emanating from one of the closer Dreadnoughts, then a powerful jolt as the beam connected with his ship. The console screamed as his shields fell to almost zero.

"We have to get out of here" he yelled at Kagura, who was watching her friends float towards a Federation cruiser.

"We can't just leave them here!" She yelled back, panic was thick in her voice.

"If we try to save them we'll be destroyed. We can think of something later, but we have to escape now!" Vek gunned his ship for the nearest clear space and yanked the warp drive. His ship fired off into the dark abyss, leaving behind the crew of the _Neko-Koneko_ at the mercy of the Federation Navy.

*

The silent pod was pulled into the hanger of the cruiser.

Sitting in the quiet compartment, no one knew what to do, should they wait or try to get out? Their questions were answer when the door of the pod was opened by an unseen person. A smoke grenade was chucked in that quickly filled the pod with a white smoke. Chiyo inhaled the gas and was over come by dizziness. It was an unusual feeling, but not an unpleasant one, she lost the feeling in her extremities, a ticklish feeling ran through her body. Her head felt heavy and her body became limp, she fell to the floor of the pod, along with the other women. He vision became blurry but before being consumed by the darkness she saw a pair of feet enter the pod and say something, but it was far too muffled to hear.

A large man stood in the hanger of the _Bolt of Zeus_, the flagship of the Federation Navy. He watched as five women were taken from the cruiser that had parked in his hanger and taken to the prison cells. He examined ex-Captain Mizuhara as her limp body was wheeled past him.

"Why would such a promising Captain do such a thing? And then travel with such a tiny escort?" he thought, scratching the back of his head, his short white hair prickled his hardened hands. Admiral Isaac Van der Brook was the oldest serving naval officer in the Federation at three hundred years old, he was also one of the most respected men in the entire Federation, having fought countless battles against numerous enemies. It was he who had recommended that Yomi be given a chance to prove herself as a Captain.

His long, dark green trench coat hovered off the ground as he made his way to the bridge. Each step a slow and deliberate one, a man with his experience made very few random decisions, even something as small as walking had to be thought through and executed with precision. He was deep in thought, "What would she have to gain in attacking a station full of innocent people. This does not make sense."

He arrived on the bridge, much larger and grander than any other ship in galaxy. He sat upon a throne-like chair in the centre of the room, around him were his staff. Large windows displayed a massive field of vision before him. All crew snapped to attention as he entered, only sitting down when he did.

He opened a line to the Federation council. "Council member, we have arrested Captain Koyomi Mizuhara. She put up little resistance." His voice was deep and tired, he had be a loyal servant of the Federation Grand Council for nearly 280 years and his opinion was very much valued by all members, even the President himself.

"Good to hear Admiral Van der Brook. Did you obtain any others with her?" an old woman asked, she sounded much more lively than the old Captain did.

"Yes, Lady Dankrieg. One of the fighter pilots and three unidentified females. There was another ship with her, but it managed to escape. Do you want us to pursue?"

"No. That will not be necessary, Admiral. Just bring back Captain Mizuhara. Also, we would like you to be on the Tribunal of Judges for her court appearance, if you will accept?"

Van der Brook hesitated for a second, he had always like Koyomi ever since he first met her a few years ago, he didn't really want to be one of the people to throw her into a dark cell for the rest of her life. On the other hand, he wanted to make sure she was treated to a fair trial...

"I accept. I will see you all tomorrow on Terra?"

"Excellent, Admiral. No, we will be holding court on Brittanika. At the Capital." The woman replied. Van der Brook nodded in confirmation and ended the call. He sighed heavily, Brittanika was a nice planet with a similar climate to the ancient island after which it was named.

"All right men, let's make speed for Brittanika. We have an important mission and I don't want to be late." he ordered. The_ Bolt of Zeus_ entered warp, followed by the hundreds of accompanying ships.

*

Yomi was swimming a dark void. It was warm and soft, everything was good. She wished she would never wake up from this wonderful place. But then the warm soft void became hard and cold, the warmth that had wrapped around her like a blanket disappeared. Her eyes cracked open, she was a cold, blue steel room. In one corner was a bed and on the other side; a toilet. There was a small port hole on the wall, showing the vast armada that floated nearby.

She sat up and rubbed her eyes, realisation of what happened rushed into her, she crawled into a corner and held her knees close, sobbing gently to herself.

In the cell next to her, Sakaki was looking out the port hole. Her head was still swimming in confusion, but she knew what was going on around her. Far away she saw a large flash and her heart broke in two. She knew that was the reactor overloading and consuming her ship, her life and livelihood. Every possession she owned was on that ship, all she had now were the clothes on her back and Kaorin, but she would never see her again, thrown into some godforsaken hole to rot.

Tomo was lying on her back on the bed. The only thing running through her head was... "I didn't even get through one cubic metre of that junk food. Twenty nine and a half cubic metres of sweet, sour and delicious food, gone, incinerated and blown out into the vacuum of space". It was eating at her like a mosquito, just the thought of all her food floating around, wasted. It pissed her off no end.

Ayumu was sitting in a corner, she didn't like her cell, it was too dull, there was nothing interesting to occupy her mind, it was all one colour and material, she needed something to think about, she retreated back into her own mind. Imagining the days of her youth, wandering around the gutted corpses of frigates and cruisers. The sand storms that could bury and unearth whole ships, every time a storm ripped through there would be something new for her to explore.

Chiyo was pacing her cell, she knew what would happen to her and the rest of the crew. They would be tried for aiding the escape of a terrorist, maybe they would be let of easy with just a few decades, but that was still a large chunk of her life gone. Chiyo was small, she couldn't survive prison full of murderous women, she would be torn apart in days with those women. Chiyo paced up and down for the entire trip, never resting, her mind too consumed by fear to think of much else.

The massive Dreadnought dropped from warp in orbit around Brittanika. The capital was hidden by a vast cloud that covered most of the planet. Shuttles were prepared to take the captives and high ranking officers down to the planet.


	8. Fury 161

Fury 161

(A/N) I have no idea how a court or law system works, so I made it up on I how I think of it. (Incorrectly and really quickly). Also, Thank you, Dark Chiyo. Hope the rest of the story holds up.

The _Thunder Horse_ was floating lifelessly in dead space. Only basic life support was on and a few lights, otherwise it was completely dead. In the living room, dimly lit by the lights running on quarter power, was Kagura. He face was hidden by her hands as she cried. Sobbing gently into her palms.

"I've lost everything. My friends, my captain, my future, everything" she thought, repeating it again and again in her mind. She felt someone sit down next to her. Vek didn't say anything, he knew she was troubled by the loss of her friends.

The two sat there for a few minutes, only the gentle hum of the ship's systems and Kagura's occasional sobs. "I have a plan." Vek said, deep and flat. Kagura looked up, wiping away her tears, there was a glimmer of hope in her eyes.

"Okay, the most likely place they're going to be taken once they've been tried is Fury 161." Vek explained, he didn't look at her as he spoke, but looked at his shoes.

"Fury 161? I think I've heard of that. Maximum security prison world, right?"

"Yeah. One vast, scorched rock, acid washed, poisonous atmosphere and home to the worst scum humanity has to offer (but other than that it's not much like Earth). Two massive underground prisons on either sides of the rock, one for men and one for women. No one has ever escaped that hell hole. So he's my plan... The ships they use to transport prisoners are much more easily broken into and out of than the planet, but they won't be sending just a few escorts when transporting Koyomi, I wouldn't be surprised if they send her over in a Battleship."

"We can't knock over a Battleship!" Kagura interrupted.

"I know, I've thought of that. Come with me, I have something interesting in the cargo hold" Vek stood up and led Kagura down to the dark cargo hold. In one dark corner there was a tall structure covered in a sheet. It was twelve feet tall and loomed over the two ominously. Vek yanked the sheet and it fell away revealing the mechanical skeleton beneath. Long arms ended with a laser cutter or mechanical claw. In the middle was a place for the pilot to strap themselves in.

"It's a Walker Suit. Industrial version. My plan is to jump from this ship onto the ship carrying them and breach the hull with this, I'll get them to an escape pod that you will then pick up. Then we all get the hell out of there." Vek explained, looking up at the suit.

"What if there is a big escort, we'll be shot to pieces before we can get them out of there." Kagura protested.

"I thought of that. They usually travel in a set formation, if we're very careful and lucky, we can pull only the ship we want, the others will just fly away. This is going to take a lot of careful planning, so we had better start soon. First step is finding a good ambush site along their flight path."

"And we have to find their flight plan, right?" Kagura suggested, thinking Vek had forgotten a vital part of the plan.

Vek sighed, "What is the first promise pirates make?" he asked her.

She thought back to his tattoo, "Um....I promise I'll discover your trade and passenger routes?"

"Exactly, I already have the flight plans to and from Fury 161, we just have to find out which planet they are on and we'll have their route and all we need to do is watch the news to find that out. So are you happy now, we haven't lost them, they're just missing for a little while." Vek looked at Kagura. Her eyes were dry of tears now and a smile graced her face.

"Yeah. I'm happy now." Kagura smiled but was slightly annoyed at Vek for patronising her. She turned around to leave.

Vek yelled at her before she left the hold "Good. Now, stop being such a girl!"

* * * * *

Yomi felt dirty, she had been strip searched and was now wearing a dull blue jump suit. Around her ankles and wrists were cuffs made of a near indestructible metal. No way of separating them without the right tools or cutting your limbs off. Her legs were chained together with only enough chain to allow her to shuffle along, her hands firmly clamped together behind her back. She was being walked down yet another long corridor, her gag prevented her from saying anything and her blindfold kept her engulfed in darkness, but she could hear more people shuffling along behind her and assumed it was her crew-mates. The guards either side of her led her into the hanger. She could feel the cold air around her.

She was walked up a small flight of stairs and forced into a seat, she guessed she was inside a shuttle craft. There was a clang and the sound of locks being activated. From Yomi's knowledge of prison ships she figured she was in a holding cell, a cage built around a chair only big enough for one person. She felt like an animal in a zoo, her gag and blindfold humiliated her even more. She could hear soft sobbing in the cell next to her, judging by the higher pitch of the crying she guessed it was Chiyo.

"Poor kid. I shouldn't have dragged her into this. Now she's going to prison all because of me" Yomi thought, she hated herself, she slumped in her seat, banging her head against the side of the cage. "I deserve this, dragging down those innocent people. I didn't kill those people on the station, but I have destroyed these peoples lives." Yomi was crushing herself with guilt, trapped within her own mind as much as she was trapped inside this cage.

The ship vibrated as it was taken out into space. There was a dull hum from the engines as she ship descended down into the atmosphere of Brittanika and it's capital, Londinium. There was turbulence as it fell through the thick cloud layer that dominated the planet. It took roughly an hour to reach the ground, but being chained inside a cage with most of their sense being denied made the journey seem much longer to the five women.

The jolt of landing gear hitting the turf jolted all the prisoners back into life. They were led out of the shuttle and into vehicles and driven away to the local prison to await trial. As they were led out, they could hear jeering, Sakaki guessed this was crowds of people protesting the fact that Yomi was still alive, screaming for her blood. She was glad she couldn't see the ugly faces of hate yelling bloody murder at them.

Finally they had their gags and blindfolds removed. Thrown into small concrete cells alone. The heavy metal doors slammed shut, leaving each woman isolated yet again. They were left to stew for a day, they never got to see each other and as far as they were concerned; the others were dead. One by one, they were taken from their cells and taken to a large courtroom. The building was made largely of wood. Wooden floors, walls, desks and chairs. They were placed in a seat, isolated from everyone else, before them sat the three judges of their fate. Each raised high on a podium looking down on the woman standing before them. They questioned each and every captured crew member, getting their names and stories. Chiyo and Ayumu had struggled here, feeling the pressure of the powerful judges bearing down on them. Both young women broke down several times as the judges demanded they answer the question.

Yomi had stood tall all the way through despite having the most pressure placed on her. She maintained her innocence all the time, but the only judge that seemed to take any pity on her was Captain Van der Brook, a man she had great respect for.

"You continue to claim that the Tri-Systems Corporation are responsible for the attack. And you claim you learnt all this from a man, who you claim hijacked your ship with a computer virus, on a mining colony?" The oldest judge asked. This man was easily 400 years old, an impressive age even at this point in time. His face was more wrinkle than face, his hair was almost gone and what remained was platinum white. People say that wrinkles are a sign of wisdom, but Yomi was convinced that this man had no wisdom as he ignored every plea of innocence from Yomi.

"Yes, your Honour. The man confessed to the crime and said that Tri-Systems paid him to do it." Yomi replied in a calm, collected voice despite her growing impatience.

"Is this the same man who was murdered the same day you visited the station" the female judge questioned, presenting a hologram before Yomi, it was the man Vek had tortured.

"Yes, your Honour. But he was alive when we left."

"Please tell; Why did you leave without him. Surely if you were out to prove your innocence you would have brought a witness with you? Why did you leave this man, knowing it was unlikely you would find him again or that he would willing confess to the attack?"

Yomi took a deep breath to calm her anger. "We were attacked by two Tri-Systems guards. We had to climb down a vent shaft to escape the attackers. It must have been they who killed the man." Yomi pleaded, why wouldn't these judges believe her? So much much for justice for all.

"No one claims to have seen the Tri-Systems guards you speak of. You were the last people to be seen with the man." the female judge removed her glasses, "You have no evidence that Tri-Systems had anything to do with the attack. I'm afraid you are the most likely suspect. You flee the scene of the crime, you continue to elude capture for nearly a week, you are suspected of murdering two men on the Mining Colony 3341. You attempted to escape arrest only yesterday. We will reconvene in two hours. Court dismissed." With that the three judges stood and left. Yomi was taken back to her cell.

Two hours later, all five women were taken to the courtroom. They each stepped forward to receive their sentences. First was Ayumu...

The old, head judge stood to read out her crimes and punishment. "Ayumu Kasuga. You are charged with aiding a fugitive escape justice and have been found .... Guilty!" Ayumu's lip quivered and tears welled up in her eyes. "You are sentenced to no less than fifty years of imprisonment on Fury 161 with no chance of parole."

Ayumu was led away by a guard back to her cell. Next was Chiyo.

"Chiyo Mihama. You are charged with aiding a fugitive escape justice and destruction of Federation property to the affect of one Naval Issue Merlin. You have been found .... Guilty!" Chiyo's head hung loosely, she was all cried out to do any more. "You are sentenced to imprisonment on Fury 161 for sixty years. Eligible for parole in fifty years."

Tomo was brought forward, she was the only one still in handcuffs. "Tomo Tankino. You are charged with aiding a fugitive escape justice, conspiring to cause death and destruction and assault of several Londinium security personnel. You have been found ...."

"Let me guess, guilty?" Tomo interrupted, the judge looked angry at her her.

"Disrespect to a Judge of the Law: Ten years. You have been found guilty and sentenced to imprisonment on Fury 161 for no less than ninety years."

Tomo was led away roughly by two guards, she was yelling profanities in the air until her voice faded away.

Sakaki stepped forward, she kept her head down and her hands together. "Sakaki Ishikawa. You were the Captain of the Neko-Koneko, thus you are responsible for your crew. It was your decision to allow the fugitives on board, even after you realized they were wanted criminals. Not only did you not report them immediately, you helped them elude authorities." The judge spoke down harshly to her.

Sakaki kept her head down as tears began filling her eyes.

"You are charged with aiding a fugitive escape justice, not reporting a wanted criminal to authorities, willingly leading your crew in the criminal world and aiding in the destruction of Federation property to the effect of one Naval Issue Merlin. You have been found .... Guilty. You are sentenced to imprisonment on Fury 161 for no less than one hundred and twenty years."

Sakaki's tears dropped from her and fell to the floor. Her throat felt crushed, she was going to spend half her life in a cell on a godforsaken rock. Kaorin wasn't going to wait that long for her, she would go off and find another girlfriend. Sakaki was led away, sobbing all the way.

At last, all that was left was Yomi. She stepped forward. All three judges stared down at her, only Captain Van der Brook had sympathy in his eyes, the other held pure contempt.

"Captain Koyomi Mizuhara. You were once considered to be a promising young Captain with a long and rewarding career in the Federation Navy. But, for reasons you have yet to reveal, you decided to destroy, maybe in the next years you will decide to share your reasons with us. But until then, you shall remain a disgrace to the Federation and a bitter disappointment to Captain Van der Brooks here, who placed his personal trust in you when he approved to grant you Captaincy of the Hammer of Thor. I hope you think a lot of how you have betrayed his trust."

Yomi didn't feel shame, she felt anger. Anger that these people wouldn't even consider the possibility that she was innocent as she claimed. She knew deep inside her that justice would be served one way or another.

"You are charged with destruction of Federation and private property amassing to the sum of one trillion credits. The deaths of approximately three hundred thousand people, fleeing from justice, dragging down your surviving crew-mates and a freelancer vessel, the murder of two men, refusing to give information on the whereabouts of the two missing crew members and for betrayal of your oath to the Federation. You have been found .... Guilty. You are sentenced to imprisonment on Fury 161 for no less than one thousand years or upon your death."

With that all women were sentenced. They would be shipped out in two days to the scorched prison planet; Fury 161.

* * * * *

The results were broadcast across the galaxy, echoing through every dark corner of humanity. Everywhere from the massive holo-screens in the streets of inner circle planets to the small personal holo-screens found in the housing on backwater mining colonies.

Vek and Kagura were watching the screen in his living room with baited breath. When Yomi's sentence was read out, Kagura gasped, she knew now that they had to rescue them, if she didn't then her friends' lives would be ruined forever.

The sentences meant nothing to Vek. He knew that they would only face a few days in a cell before they were free again. Best of all, he knew exactly where they were where. They were making it too easy for him, but now the hard part was coming up, he had a warp scrambler, but where he was going to place it; he had no clue.

"I hope they get an apology once we've proved their innocence." Kagura spoke, watching the crowds jeering at her friends as they were led back to their prison.

"I wouldn't bet on it. Mostly likely; Those crowds are going to bugger off and the court will make a formal apology with no real meaning to it, only doing it because they had to, not because they want to." Vek said, a clear dislike of the politics behind everything in the Federation.

"So, are we going to get that ambush ready or not." Kagura said, bouncing in her seat impatiently.

"Relax, they aren't going to be shipped out for two days." Vek pushed a button on the remote control and the holo-screen turned into a map of the quadrant. Brittanika and Fury 161 were highlighted, as was a crooked line connecting them. "Okay, we're here. And the largest jump is this stretch here, but only this section here is decent dead space, the rest is within easy jump distance of these asteroid belts." Vek highlighted a small section of the longest line on the crooked pathway.

"So we have a stretch of one thousand kilometres to pull it in?" Kagura said, examining the numbers on the screen.

"Yes. Not huge, but it'll have to do. Now the problem we have is getting the prison ship but not it's escorts." Vek didn't have a plan for this vital part. If he pulled the escorts, they would be shot to pieces, if he missed the prison ship they would never get another shot at it and the only alternative was to break them out of Fury 161 itself, which was impossible without an army.

* * * * *

Yomi sat in her cell, slouching against the cold wall. Her face was blank and pale. She had lost hope. No one was going to jump forward and save her from the bleak fate awaiting her. She closer her eyes and tried to fall into a state of numbness, there were no windows in her cell, but she could feel that the weather outside matched her grim mood. Weather; Something that had always fascinated Yomi, being born in space and spending almost her whole life up there, weather was an interesting effect that she enjoyed witnessing once and a while.

Her minded wandered without boundaries inside her head. Whatever mild sensation went through her was amplified and felt deeper than usual as her mind toyed with it before throwing it aside to be replaced with a new one. Her mind wandered to the mercenary she had hired. Last she heard he was suffering structural damage, then she had to escape the ship. She hadn't seen any explosion, so maybe he was still alive with Kagura wandering the darkness in search of a new employer. It was unlikely that the Federation would bother hunting him down, they had their prize, their sacrificial lamb to throw to the crowds screaming for justice.

Yomi huddled closer to keep herself warm, the lights were coming on throughout her temporary prison as night fell. "How long was I sitting there?" she wondered. She stood up to lay down in the cot handing off the wall, plunging into her mind once more, this time with more control of what thought entered her brain.

"Fury 161" Just thinking it sent shivers down her spine. Shivers were last thing you would expect on Fury 161, the planet was the closest to the star in it's system. It's surface was scorched daily as the extreme heat washed over it at dawn. Some say that the rocks even melted at the equator then hardened again at night. Even in it's coldest places on each pole, it was far too hot for any human to survive. No one ever escaped that rock that God himself seemed to have forgotten, only specialized ships could land at certain times of the year, so getting an escape vessel was out of the question for the convicts.

The female prison in the north was Yomi's ultimate destination, just as it was the destination of the four other women she had dragged down with her. Yomi remember all the horror stories she had heard coming from the dark pits of Fury 161, tales of rape, murder, prostitution and torture to name but a few. Whatever crimes could be committed in the free world were committed with a new intensity inside the dark halls of Fury 161. How many of them were true, Yomi didn't know. The stories of Fury 161 acted as a deterrent to crime as well as a way to scare little children at night.

In the cell next to her, separated by two feet of concrete was Tomo. Tomo couldn't stay still long enough to explore her inner mind. She was pacing her cell, like she had been ever since she was thrown in there by the guards a few hours ago. Her shoulder was still aching from her attempts to knock the door down, she had only tried that approach a few times before she learned it was futile. The door wasn't moving. Nor were the walls. Escape was impossible from her cell. Eventually Tomo surrendered to her exhaustion and lay on the bed, it was stiff and uncomfortable, but that was the least of her worries.

"Here I am, waiting in a prison cell to be shipped to Fury 161, the most Godforsaken rock in the galaxy and Kagura is off somewhere with her merc boyfriend." The fact that Kagura wasn't suffering with her made her imprisonment even worse for the caged wildcat.

In Ayumu's cell, she sobbed quietly in the corner, she was a small engineer who was born on a desert backwater, not some criminal. But she was going to be thrown to the eager wolves that waited in the dark hell of Fury 161. Chiyo was facing a similar problem, the youngest and smallest of the group she would no doubt be targeted as an easy victim by the devils that lurked in the dark corners of that black rock.

Sakaki had one thing going for her; Her size. She could hopefully defend herself against anyone who dared attack her, but she feared greatly for her two small crew-mates. She would have to defend them at all times, but what would happen if she couldn't be there all the time? She didn't even want to think about that.

* * * * *

Captain Van der Brook sat in his office. It was cold but he didn't care. His office was small but cosy, around him were framed medals, certificates and photos of his younger years. He had been sitting in his leather chair for a few hours, so deep in thought he hadn't noticed the sun setting outside. Only the arrival of his second-in-command stirred him. Flicking on the lights as she entered, the middle aged woman sat down in front of her captain's desk.

"Is something wrong, sir?" she asked, wondering why he had been sitting in the dark.

Van der Brook snapped up in his seat, but relaxed almost immediately, sliding down in his chair rubbing his eyes as they adjusted to the light. "Afternoon, Rebecca." he greeted.

"Um .... Evening, sir. It's half past seven." she replied. The old captain looked out the window, the lights of the city stretched out like a massive Christmas tree that had fallen over and disintegrated over the dark land.

"Oh. How long have I been here?"

"About fours hours, sir. You came here shortly after the trial."

"Ah, yes. That sham of a trial." The old man leaned forward in his chair and rested his elbows on the table.

"Sir?" asked the woman known as Rebecca.

"You know as well as I do that that trial was a sham. The Federation needed someone to take the fall for what happened to AC – 3. Even if it meant sacrificing a promising young captain." the captain stood up and walked over to his drinks cabinet. "They didn't care what she had to say, or what any of them had to say. As long as the people think justice has been done, they probably don't care."

"What did she say, sir? I wasn't at the trial and haven't really had then time to watch the news." the vice-captain asked, curious as to why the normally loyal and devoted servant of the Federation would suddenly accuse it's law system of being a sham.

"She said that the corporation Tri-Systems was responsible for the attack. Apparently she had a witness who was killed by some of their goons before they could get him off the station. It sounds ridiculous, I know, but I can't shake this feeling that she was telling some truth, but I can't tell which parts are lies are which aren't." he said as he poured himself a drink. Sitting back down he looked to his second-in-command for answers.

"Well, sir. What would Tri-Systems have to gain by destroying a station full of people?"

"Hmmm... As you know, I have dedicated my life to serving the Federation, my knowledge lays mostly within the delicacies of space warfare. You, however know far more of the wider world, so you tell me." he ordered, taking a long swig of his small drink.

The woman sat up, quickly bringing her knowledge of the mega-corporation to the surface of her mind. "Well, as their name suggests; They operate largely within the systems of BT, BC and BM. The planets inside their domain are mostly mining and agricultural but they do make a lot of electronics and starship components. They also make a lot of food products, but I can't see any reason for them to attack a station." she explained.

"Okay, what did the AC – 3 station specialize in, maybe they were out to get rid of the competition?" the captain suggested.

"No, that wouldn't work either sir. It was just a normal space station. It was home to a few hundred thousand people, had ore refineries, a small hydroponics division, oh, wait I think they also had an advanced medical centre there. But Tri-System's don't have anything to do with medical research. Sir, I know you are unwilling to admit that Captain Mizuhara was responsible for the attack, but I can't see any alternative."

Van der Brook let out a long, heavy sigh and took another swig of his drink, finishing it. "Perhaps you're right, Rebecca. But why would she blame Tri-Systems? It makes no sense." he said, his voice was weary.

"Maybe it was to distract the investigation and buy her more time to plan something. In that case it was best that the trial was swift. If she escaped, the odds of us capturing her again would be slim, especially if she settled planet-side." his second-in-command offered.

The old man shook his head. "Yeah. The sooner she is put away, the sooner we can all get on with our lives. But why did you come in here in the first place, sorry I hogged the discussion." The captain apologised. Rebecca presented him with a pile of papers to read and sign and he immediately regretted reminding her of her job.

* * * * *

Dust. The standard name of a desert planet unless it is deemed worthy enough of a proper name. In the Beta Centari system, there were three such Dust planets. On the only colonised one, Dust 223, a man stood in a cool office elevated high above the dry soil. He looked out across the parched landscape, in the far distance he could vaguely make out a small mining town, he didn't know it's name, nor did he care. The people who lived in that hastily built town where employees of his company, but that's where the connection ended.

A door opened behind him and a stern looking woman entered. Her face was pulled tight by her hair, tied into a tight bun, her business suit was form fitting and wrinkle free. She approached the man silently. Without turning around he spoke, "I take it our little scapegoat has been caught?" his voice was calm, with a hint of joy.

"Yes, sir. She was sentenced to life imprisonment on Fury 161. Most of her entourage was caught and sentenced too." she replied, even her voice seemed tightly controlled and neutral.

"Really? So soon? Ha, they're making this too easy for us. I say within a year we will be reaping the rewards of our gamble here. How much do you think the company is going to make off our little enterprise? I'm guessing somewhere in the billions maybe even trillions if everything goes according to plan and it defiantly looks that way, haha" the man laughed. The woman did not respond, she knew it was a largely rhetorical question.

"Have a shuttle readied for me. I need to get off this rock and see the boss." The man waved away the woman who swiftly left to do as ordered.

"Where would Tri-Systems be without me?" he thought.

(A/N) Going to end this one a little short, but the next will contain much more space warfare and in greater detail than this one.


	9. Break Out

Break Out

(A/N) I just realized I've been spelling Tomo's name incorrectly throughout the story. It's Takino, not Tankino. Too much Serj Tankian I guess. Forgive me. Also, thanks Omegahugger for the review

Kagura was strapped into the walker suit. She was inside the cargo hold so didn't have to worry about a space suit that would normally be worn. She was wearing a pair of goggles that interfaced directly with the suit and provided the wearer with a read out of important information about various systems on the suit. It could also read thought waves to change modes, but this required a level of training Kagura did not have.

She lifted a leg and the suit mimicked the action, Kagura managed to keep her balance as she stepped forward awkwardly. Vek clapped with minor sarcasm, but Kagura took it as encouragement and took another step forward. Raising her arms and testing the range of movement available to her, she toyed around for a while. Clenching a gloved hand, the claw on the right arm of the walker did the same. Relaxing it again, she picked up an empty box, but underestimating her new strength she crushed the box in her iron grip.

"When you're done there, I could use your help with the scrambler" Vek called out to her, she awkwardly turned around to face him.

"I would, but I don't know how to get out" she said, her voice getting slightly quieter, embarrassed to admit this.

Vek jumped up onto the skeleton of the walker and began releasing the bonds that held the pilot in place, finally freeing her. Taking her place, he walked the suit back into position. He was far more skilled in piloting the mechanical skeleton than Kagura, walking it like it was an extension of his own body.

"So, how can you be helped?" she asked as Vek jumped down from the walker.

"I can't be helped, it's permanent." he replied, smugly smiling as he walked past her. "But I could use a hand in setting up the scrambler."

Vek took her down to the basement of the ship, a small crawlspace that reeked of lubricants and metal. There were large and small pipes everywhere along with wires and bits of machinery that served some vague purpose, all around them was a loud hum of machines working. Vek guided her to a large cylinder shaped machine that lay silent.

"This is the warp scrambler, it needs to be calibrated first. We have to put in the size of the scrambler field and then drop the second component!" Vek had to shout so Kagura could hear him over the ever present hum.

"Okay. If we assume they use a normal prison ship, it should be about thirty metres wide and twenty metres tall. If we don't want to pull the escort with it, we should go smaller!" Kagura shouted back. Together they set the piece of technology to their desired specs, Vek had to lay on his back to tweak the small dials that were hidden by darkness, Kagura helped by setting some of the other dials until it was ready. There was a risk that the field would be too small and that the ship would simply pass around it or that only the escorts would be pulled. It was a risk, but one they had to take.

They had to drop a small satellite roughly a thousand kilometres away. When the ship passed through that thousand kilometres stretch, the warp drive would be scrambled and the ship would fall out of warp, hopefully near the Thunder Horse so they could raid it quickly. Unfortunately for Kagura and Vek, there was nothing to warp to within that thousand mile run. So they would have to fly there manually.

"I have an idea." Kagura said, after a short silence between the two. "Wouldn't the authorities be looking for this ship? So if we brought them back onto here, wouldn't they know what to look for?"

Vek looked blank as he listened. It seemed pretty obvious to him now. "You're right. But I don't have another ship, do you?" he asked, trying to figure out a way around this small hiccup.

"No." the two thought for a while, trying to get someone to help break out the most wanted woman in the galaxy would be no easy, or cheap, task. It would also take time that they didn't have.

"What about Kaori?" Kagura suggested.

"Who?" Vek asked, he was leaned forward in his seat, resting his elbows on his knees.

"She's Sakaki's girlfriend." Kagura informed him. Vek was quiet for a second, trying to match names to faces.

"Sakaki? The little engineer?"

"No. The big, quiet one. You spoke to her on the radio all the time! How can you forget her so easily?" Kagura asked, raising her voice.

"I'm sorry!" Vek sneared. "It was a momentary lapse of memory. I get those sometimes." he stood up and stretched. Bones audibly cracking into place.

"Whatever. Anyway, Kaori could help us get them out of here, they don't know she's connected to any of this so they wouldn't be looking for her."

Vek was quiet for a second. "That could work. Do I have her signal?" he typed in a few things on his console and list of names appeared. "Good thing I copied all of the Neko's frequently used numbers to my hard drive."

"Why would you do that?" Kagura asked, curious to his excuse for invading someone's privacy.

"Doesn't that seemed like a stupid question right now?" he asked as a name and long number appeared on the holo-screen.

Kagura muttered something under her breath, then spoke up "But why would you do it in the first place?"

"It's in case someone tries to run without paying. I can track down their family or friends and hold them for ransom or something. It's an insurance policy." he explained.

"Okay, that makes sense, I guess. Get her on the line and see if she'll help us. Tell her Sakaki's in trouble, that should bring her round." Kagura said, leaning over Vek shoulder as he typed.

"I'm sure she already knows. Let's hope she really loves her Sakaki or we'll have to do this solo."

* * * * *

Yomi was being escorted down the cold concrete hallway of her prison. She was blind folded and her hands were bound, but this time she was spared the gag. She was placed inside an armoured vehicle to be driven to the nearest space-port. The ride was smooth and unstopped as the streets were cleared to allow them through.

She couldn't hear any of her companions and guessed she was alone. She did feel someone was close though. "Can you take my blind fold off?" she asked, hoping that whoever was there would answer.

There was no answer, but Yomi's blind fold was pulled off forcefully. She looked up and saw a young female guard looking at her, in her hand was the blind fold. The guard was chewing some gum and staring at Yomi with a strange smile on her face.

"Thank you" Yomi said, looking around the cab. She could feel the guard's eyes constantly on her, Yomi tried to avoid looking at the guard again. She was alone with her. "Where are the others?" she asked.

"They're in the other cars. We didn't want to put you all in one vehicle in case someone tried something." the guard replied, still smiling and staring at her.

Yomi gulped, the odds that some vigilante would try and blow her up seemed very high at the moment, she was actually hoping to get onto the ship soon, to get away from the crowds and from the guard who was starting to creep Yomi out.

"You know, I had a friend on that station you parked in." the guard said suddenly. Yomi looked up, she didn't like where this was going. "Yeah, not a really close friend, but a friend none the less. He didn't make it off in time."

"I'm sorry, but it wasn't my fault." Yomi said, trying to fill her voice with authority to perhaps discourage the guard from trying anything.

"That's what you keep saying. I have a lot of friends. The pilot of the ship you'll be taking is one of them. I asked him to give you a little treat before you get to Fury." The guard chuckled. "Yup, you'll be spending the rest of your life on that rock, in the women's prison. No men there, you know?"

"I can guess." Yomi replied, squinting at the guard, trying to figure out where she was going with this.

"Yeah, so I asked him to give you a little farewell gift on the flight. Half way there, there should be a little 'malfunction' in the cell next to you, your cell will be unlocked, as will the cell of an infamous rapist, finally caught after a five year manhunt. He won't be seeing any females for the rest of his life, so I suspect he'll take advantage of any opportunity presented to him." The guard laughed.

Yomi didn't know what to say. There was no one to help her now. She was alone. The vehicles stopped and the guard put Yomi's blind fold back on.

The waiting black ship sat on the platform. It was fully loaded and just waiting for the final five guests. The ship was roughly half a two hundred and fifty metres long, two large engines either side of the bow and three more engines at the stern. The women were led on board, through the small corridors to their holding cells. They passed numberless doors on their way, each one contained a criminal sentenced to serve their time on Fury 161. Some were only going in for a decade or two, other were going for life.

Chiyo's binds were released and she was forced into her cell. Cold blue metal everywhere, patches of rust were forming in corners. She looked around her home for the next day, she tried to savour this moment, knowing what came next would be even worse. She lay on the bed and looked up, trying to relax. She let out a scream and rolled off the bed upon her discovery. A guard appeared outside the door.

"What's wrong?" she asked harshly.

"There's a stain on the ceiling!" Chiyo screamed back. The guard rolled her eyes and disappeared from her view, leaving Chiyo to herself.

As Tomo was led to her cell, the guards spoke. "Maybe we should leave the gag in for this one, take it out and she won't shut up for the whole trip." the guard advised the other.

"Good idea. Binds too?" he replied.

"Well, duh! Take her binds off and she remove the gag herself."

"Oh, right. Stupid me."

So that is what the guards did. They pulled her blindfold off and threw her into her cell. Leaving her squirming to get upright and the muffled shouts of various colourful profanities.

The guard who had been with Yomi in the transport was now escorting her to her cell. Just before slamming the cell door shut, the guard whispered into Yomi's ear. "Enjoy the trip." Closing the door and laughing, the guard left. Yomi sat on the bed, she was frightened, at least she was expecting the attack and could be prepared when it happened, if it ever did happen.

"Maybe she was just joking to scare me. They wouldn't dare do something like that, would they?" Yomi thought. She sat in her cell, alone with her thoughts.

The ship lurched into life. Rising slowly from the atmosphere of Brittanika and into space. Aligning itself, it fired into warp.

* * * * *

Vek ended the call with Kaorin. She hadn't sounded happy to hear him, she had accused him of getting her precious Sakaki caught. Finally he had managed to calm her with the help of Kagura. They explained their plan and she listened.

"So, are you going to help us? You won't have to do much, just get them away once they're on your ship." Kagura asked again.

There was silence over the radio, waiting for Kaorin's answer.

"Okay. But only to save Sakaki." she assured them. "I'll be there in three hours."

After she hung up, Vek looked to Kagura. "Wow. She's pissed at us.".

"Yeah. Maybe once she gets her girlfriend back she'll be a little nicer." Kagura sat down on the steps next to the console. They were quiet, Vek had put his feet up on the console and was tapping his boot toes together and humming something. "So, what to do for three hours?" she wondered aloud.

Vek didn't reply, but exhaled forcefully. "We could play pool?" he suggested. There was nothing better to do so they played on his pool table for the next few hours while they awaited Kaorin's arrival.

At last, the computer detected a ship nearby. It was Kaorin, but she was in a new ship, a much smaller one. It was slightly shorter lengthwise than the Hookbill, but it as about twice as tall, two long wings going down at a sharp angle and a long 'nose' with several guns mounted on it going down two dozen metres. The cockpit was located on the very top, held above the rest of the ship by a thick arm. Three powerful engines propelled the ship forward through the void towards the waiting Hookbill. The words "_Choice_" were written down it's nose

"Hey, that's a Scythe. Those are nice ships. Wonder how much it cost?" Vek thought out loud as they watched the ship through the windows. The computer bleeped as she sent a message.

"Okay. I'm here. Fill me in the plan." said, her voice was impatient and she sounded upset.

Vek pulled an exaggerated sad face as Kaorin spoke, Kagura laughed as quietly as she could so Kaorin wouldn't hear her.

"Alright, Kaorin. We've set everything up, we just need to wait for their ship to hit our trap. Then I'll get them to an escape pod and you pick them up. Once they're on board, you warp to these coordinates, we'll follow. From there we can figure out what to do next." Vek said over the radio. "Until then, just try and distract yourself. We only expect them to arrive sometime tomorrow. You can come over if you like, we have a pool table." Vek offered. He suddenly remembered what happened last time he offered his ship. "Or if you'd prefer to stay on your own ship, that's fine."

"Actually I wouldn't mind coming over. I don't have anything to do in here" Kaorin replied. The annoyance and impatience had all but disappeared from her voice.

"Dammit." Vek muttered under his breath. Kaorin got up from her seat and walked down the narrow bridge that led to the main body of her ship. She found the doorway she was looking for, a small circular hatch that led to the cockpit of a small craft, smaller than even a shuttle, it was made for quick jumps to and from ships.

Kaorin crawled inside the small ship and sealed the hatch. Above her, a large hatch opened and the ship drifted out into space. A few gentle thrusts got it moving in the right direction towards the _Thunder Horse. _She latched onto a similar port on Vek's hull and boarded his ship. She was greeted by a friendly looking Kagura and a mildly annoyed looking Vek. Vek had his arms folded and was looking down at the floor, he looked up to greet her and was swift about it and quickly turned his back to get back to his game.

Kagura and Kaorin lagged behind him and spoke in lowered voices. "That's an intense scar. Where did he get it?" Kaorin asked, but Kagura didn't have an answer.

"Dunno. Maybe you should ask him. I doubt he'll mind explaining it."

"Mmm, maybe you should. You're closer to him." Kaorin replied, looking Vek up and down. She noticed a few subtleties about him, like how he walked heavily, as if he weighed considerably more than he appeared. He also walked with a small hunch, taking a few inches off his height.

Kagura seemed slightly confused that Kaorin would suggest she was close to Vek, when questioned about it Kaorin replied, "Well, you've been living with him for at least a week now. Surely you've grown on each other?"

"It's kind of hard to explain. He told me he was trying to be asexual, so I'm not sure how he feels towards me. But I do see him as a bit of a friend." Kagura replied, thinking more deeply about her feeling for the mercenary than she had earlier.

"Asexual? Like a monk?" Kaorin raised an eyebrow.

"Not really. I think he sees sex and stuff as being a waste of time and he would rather focus on other things. I _think_, I don't know..." Kagura shrugged.

Do you _like_ him?" Kaorin asked, smiling as she made the slightly taller woman uncomfortable with her questions. "He is a little cute, don't you think? Of course I wouldn't really know, but I can guess" Kaorin's smile broadened as Kagura blushed slightly while Kaorin nudged her.

Kagura laughed off her embarrassment, "Cute isn't the word I would use. Now stop asking questions" Kagura nudged Kaorin back playfully.

For the next few hours they hung out in Vek's ship, talking and playing pool or snooker. All the time slowly counting down the hours until they expected the prison ship to fall for their trap. One by one the hours fell, Kaorin returned to her ship and prepared her systems. Vek explained the steering for his ship to Kagura, if any escorts were pulled, she would have to pull some manoeuvres to keep his ship from being turned to scrap.

Vek was dressed in the proper walker outfit for space operations. A similar spacesuit to the one's previously worn, but this one had armour plates on vital areas and was tighter, it wasn't designed for combat, but it would defiantly help. He had strapped some weapons onto the limbs of the Walker, a pistol and an assault rifle. Kagura was helping him strap in and was about to on the helmet when Vek remembered something.

"Wait, almost forgot..." Vek grabbed the bullet necklace off Kagura's neck, fastening it around his own.

"Why do you need that?" she asked, looking at the necklace.

"It's my lucky bullet necklace." Holding the bullet in front of her. It was a normal shell bullet, usually used on planets, not space operations.

"Why is it lucky?" The bullet and necklace seemed wholly unremarkable, except from something scratched into the brass casing that Kagura hadn't noticed earlier.

"I wrote my name in it, my real name that is. You know how they say 'There's a bullet with your name on it'? Well, I figured; If I have that bullet, I'll never get shot. I'm not going to shoot myself am I?" Vek explained, hiding the bullet before Kagura could read the name scratched into the casing.

"Fine. Just don't get shot by a laser." she ordered.

"Don't crash my ship." he ordered back. Climbing into the skeleton and strapping in. He waited in the cold, quiet cargo hold while Kagura waited on the bridge, the line with Kaori always open, but silence between them. After nearly two hours of waiting, Kagura got a message that a ship had hit the warp scrambler, she waited with baited breath for it to drop near her.

* * * * *

The captain of the prison ship was sitting in his seat, feet up on the console. He checked his watch, only two more hours and he'd be in orbit around Fury 161. He flicked through the security camera feeds, checking every prisoner was in their cell. Paying special attention to a certain Captain turned terrorist.

"Let's get that farewell gift ready for her." he thought, checking that no guards were in that section of cells to interrupt the goodbye. "But who to choose, so many choices..." he flicked through the other convicts in that section, most of them thieves, murders and a few others. "Ahh, he'll do nicely" the captain decided on a serial rapist two cells down from Yomi. He was pacing his cell, hitting the walls now and then.

The captain brought up the lock command and searched for his target. Suddenly the ship jumped, sending the captain and the rest of the crew and prisoners a few feet into the air before the gravity generator could catch up. The ship began to list to the right, everyone's stomach contents shifted as the gravity generator redefined which way was "up". The speed readout dropped sharply and the bubble began to break.

The captain scrambled to find something to fix whatever was going wrong. Pushing his ship's normal flight engines to the maximum, but nothing helped. Outside he could see his six heavily armed escorts disappear ahead of him. He knew a warp scrambler when he saw one, but something had gone wrong here, he had just missed it, only half his ship was being pulled out, one half strained to fly on while the other half was being pulled down. If he didn't act quickly he was going to be torn apart. He knew that the only people to use warp scramblers were very rich and connected pirates and the Federation Navy.

"Please be a Fed patrol." he muttered to himself as he pushed the warp drive lever into the off position. The colourful view of the warp was suddenly replaced by the inky blackness of normal space. He was spinning, either that or the two ships ahead of him were pulling impossible manoeuvres. Carried forward by the momentum of the drop, the gravity generator was struggling to keep up. The stern of the ship was rising and the bow was falling, his ship was about to go head over heels. He wrestled the controls to stabilise the ship, but the scrambler had hit his reactor and was making it very hard to control. He managed to slow the spinning and keep the ship as flat as possible but his engines were being burned.

* * * * *

Vek gave the order and the atmosphere was sucked from the cargo hold. All fell silent, all he could hear was his heart beat and breathing. The door in front of him slid open and he jumped. He had practised this many times in a virtual trainer, but this was the first time he had done it real life and it was the single most terrifying, adrenaline pumping thing he had ever and probably ever will do. For after he jumped all was quiet and still. He could see he was flying forward but he couldn't feel it. All sensations that normally informed someone they were moving, were missing.

The prison ship was getting close fast. Vek readied himself for the collision. Arms out, ready to absorb the blow, he held his breath. The collision was like being deaf and thrown against a wall, he knew it should have made a sound, but there was nothing but silence. He quickly steadied himself, the magnets in the feet of the Walker connected with the hull and Vek stood up. He had to choose his entry point carefully so as not to breach the hull right next to Yomi's or the other girls' cells.

Running across the hull to the underbelly of the large vessel, only the sound of his breathing could be heard. He could feel each footstep hitting the hull, vibrations running through him and the helmet computer told him he was still connected to the hull. "Should have brought a music player." he thought with the wisdom of hindsight. He pushed that thought to the side and focused on his job at hand. Finding a suitable spot to cut through he got to work. Firing up the laser cutter, it was agonisingly slow. He cut a thin line a metre long across the dark hull, using the claw to dig into the wound and rip it open. His readout told him the walker was pushing itself to it's strongest, but the hole was only slowly being ripped open. The cutter burnt a line that widened the hole. Vek pulled with all of his combined strength and the hull plate was ripped away, revealing the skeletal structure inside. Vek threw the plate away and it drifted into space.

Clenching the claw into a fist, he punched the metal bar blocking his path to the next layer of hull plating. The ship was old and it's structure was getting weak, the bar dented on the first punch, on the second it cracked. Grabbing it and ripping it away, Vek cleared a path. If he could hear anything, he was sure he would have heard metal screeching as it was torn apart. Cutting into the thinner plating, Vek knew he had breeched the hull. On the incision, a gas erupted from the small cut, dissipating into space. Vek cut open and hole and dropped down into the hold.

His walker suit hit the ground hard, a quick scan revelled no life signs. He was in a large, empty room. Probably an unused cargo hold. Vek walked to the nearest door he could find and unstrapped himself. Taking his weapons, he opened the door. He was greeted with a powerful burst of air being sucked out into space. He pushed through and closed the door. The air stopped blowing and Vek fell forwards before he could shift his weight. He stood up and quickly scanned the hallway ahead of him.

The captain of the ship had no doubt seen the hull breach warning and it was only a matter of time before Vek was overwhelmed with guards or the doors were sealed. Vek pulled the helmet off and raised his rifle, moving forward along the grey corridor. Swiftly moving through the ship towards the bridge, Vek was wondering why he hadn't encountered a single guard yet.

"Where are you hiding, you bastards?" he thought. An answer was returned very quickly, too quickly in fact. A red laser narrowly missed his head by only a few inches as he turned a corner. Vek snapped to cover, hearing shouts and more laser rifles firing at him. He was at a T-Section, gun fire was coming from the hallway he needed to travel to the bridge. Ahead of him was the route to some prison blocks, but that was useless if he couldn't open the cells. The gun fire ceased and footsteps approached.

The inexperienced guard approached the corner, his rifle raised and he his brow was sweating. Behind him were his comrades but that offered little comfort. His gun barrel rounded the corner and was immediately grabbed by a gloved hand, pulling it up. The guard didn't have time to think before a fist smashed into his face, stunning him. He barely had time to close his eyes in pain before being spun around and used as a human shield. Vek was holding his prisoner close to him, one arm over his shoulder, pistol aimed at the guards ahead.

The guards foolishly stood up from behind their barricades, Vek squeezed the trigger three times, each time a single bullet was let loose. The bullets flew straight, the bright green shell hit the guards and broke through the armour like paper. The shell broke down and poured a powerful, non-lethal neurotoxin. The guards were about to sacrifice their friend as the green shells pierced their armour and skin. They found that their fingers wouldn't move as ordered, then their arms felt incredibly heavy and fell to their sides. Their legs felt weak and collapsed under them, falling into crumbled heaps. Vek pushed his shield forward and landed a shot in his back, Vek walked past as the guards lay twitching occasionally as their brains sent signals to their bodies, only to be blocked by the toxin.

Vek carried on, quickly reaching the bridge. He looked around before stepping in. It was empty and silent except for the gentle hum of computers. Vek moved in slowly, watching ahead for any movement. Falling for the same trap he had laid earlier, an arm sprung out and grabbed his gun. Vek was pulled close to the attacker, face to face, both snarled as they tried to win the gun. The gun was thrown from their hands, landing on the console. Vek pushed the attacker away from him, pushing him hard into a wall and lunged for the gun, but the captain of the ship grabbed him and threw him backwards. Vek hit the ground, the rifle on his back made it extra painful. He kicked out the captain's leg, sending him crashing to the ground.

They both got to their feet quickly, the captain threw a punch that Vek narrowly avoided. He punched up into the captain's stomach, pushing his body into the punch. The captain let out a grunt in pain but recovered quickly, raising a fist that caught Vek in the throat. Vek fell backwards, gasping for air and clutching his throat. The captain, still holding his stomach, moved towards the gun. Vek pulled out his rifle, still latched onto his back. It was deactivated, the lights along the side were all off. Vek tapped a few buttons and waited for the stupid machine to turn on. The captain was getting close to the pistol now.

The rifle was on now, but had to be calibrated. He had to fiddle with some more buttons on the side. The captain had reached the gun and turned it on Vek, smiling wickedly, about to fire what he thought would be a lethal shot into his attacker. He stood in front of Vek, gun raised, he pulled the trigger.

Vek had crudely calibrated the rifle. He pointed it up at the captain and squeezed the trigger. A single red laser shot out of the barrel. It shot forward, incinerating the bullet fired from the captain and carrying on down the barrel of the pistol and out the other side, through the body of the attacker. The captain stood still. Stunned. His spine was severed by the laser and only his good balance was keeping him upright. Vek stared for a second, watching the captain stand perfectly still, his gun still raised. Vek fired again, this time sending laser through the head. The force of the superheated energy beam pushed the captain onto his back, melted brain and cooked blood leaked from his skull onto the floor, the smell of seared flesh was beginning to fill the room.

Vek stood up, rubbing his back as he walked over to the console. The cell locking controls were already up, looking through the names he found them. They were all located in the same hallway probably so the guards could focus their defence. Vek ran through the security cameras, searching through every cell for Yomi and the others. He found them each in their cells. Tomo was laying on her bed kicking the wall in frustration. The others were either sitting on the floor or laying on their beds, oblivious of the rescue operation. He typed in the unlock command for the cells and they clicked open, but they could only be opened from the outside so Vek had to get down there before the guards decided that executing the prisoners was better than letting them escape.

Vek knew if he wanted to get through any guards on that floor he would need something with splash damage. His pistol was broken and the rifle had overloaded and needed to cool down before he dared fire it again and have it blow up in his face. He looked around the bridge and saw a locker on the wall. Inside he found what he was looking for. A rack of tubular grenades, stun grenades to be precise. He grabbed a few of them and rushed to Yomi's cell.

* * * * *

Yomi had felt the premature fall from warp. No windows meant she couldn't confirm if the ship was still moving and asking the guards was out of the question. She was stuck in her bland cell with no way of learning any more. She tried to push herself back into the trace like state she had been in for most of the journey. Anything that could get her away from thoughts of Fury 161. She sat in her corner focusing on the floor with a burning intensity. After what felt like hours there was a loud click. Yomi looked up to try and find the source of the noise. She stood up and approached the door. There was no handle for her to grip so she pressed her hands against it and tried to slid it across but it didn't move. She sighed and returned to her corner. "I'm not even in the prison and already I'm loosing my mind." she thought. "But that's probably a good thing. I don't really want to be entirely there while I serve my sentence."

* * * * *

Vek was peeking around a corner. He could see the five guards that had barricaded the corridor, five laser rifles pointed at him. He flicked the cover off the grenade and pressed the trigger button. He threw it around the corner and covered his ears and eyes firmly. The guards saw the small device fly towards them bouncing over their makeshift barricade and land between the feet of one young guard. Time seemed to slow as they broke into a run. The young guard kicked the grenade up and into a wall. It bounced back and detonated. Long cracks of electricity erupted from it and flowed over the foolish guard. Half a second later the grenade exploded in a blinding flash and deafening blast that knocked the retreating guards down.

Vek jumped around the corner and rushed the stunned guards. The first to fall was the young guard, the grenade had knocked him out cold. Vek grabbed the first guard he could and punched him in the face and quickly spun him around and pushed him into another guard, both fell to the floor. A guard who had managed to avoid the worst of the blast threw a punch at Vek which he narrowly avoided. Vek grabbed his arm and spun him around, kicking him into a wall. The last guard was staggering to her feet, still suffering the effects of the grenade. Vek kicked out her legs and she fell to the floor, too confused to stand up or do much at all. Using the handcuffs he took off them, Vek cuffed them to each other, with the first and last being cuffed to pipes on the walls.

* * * * *

Tomo heard some shouts from outside her cell and then a loud blast. Seconds later, the sounds of people being floored raised some hope inside her. A minute later, her cell door slid open and there stood the mercenary.

Vek saw the gagged and bound woman. She shouted something at him and got closer to her.

"What? Take your gag out? Actually, I like you better like this. I'll be back in a minute" he said, leaving her like she was. As he closed the door she let off another string of profanities that could burn a whole though steel.

Vek moved down the hall to the next door and slid it open. In the far corner was the small woman known as Chiyo.

"Hey!" he called out to her, she looked up and jumped to her feet upon seeing Vek. She rushed over to him with her arms open to hug. Before she reached him, he grabbed her shoulder.

"Don't do hugs. Come on we have to get the rest of you." he said, leading her to the next cell and opening it. Ayumu jumped out, waving her hands and her eyes closed, slapping Vek, who stood there slightly confused until Chiyo stopped her.

"Ayumu, it's okay. He's here to rescue us." She said, stepping between Vek and Ayumu. She opened her eyes and hugged the smaller girl.

"Chiyo! We're going to be okay" she said, joyfully with a big smile and watery eyes. "The beard man is going to save us."

"I know, Ayumu. I know. We have to get the others." Chiyo said, prying Ayumu off her.

Vek got the rest of the prisoners. Grabbing Tomo on their way out and releasing her from her binds and gag. He took them all the escape pods and blasted them off. He quickly made his way back to his Walker suit. Grabbing his helmet before stepping into the atmosphere free cargo hold where his Walker waited.

He strapped in and climbed out the hole. He made the second leap of faith that day as he threw himself towards the _Thunder Horse. _

* * * * *

Kagura saw the escape pods flying out of the prison ship and Kaorin's ship pulling them in. Moments later, Vek arrived in the cargo hold of the ship and she began manoeuvring for warp. She yanked the lever and soon they were smoothly riding through the strange and beautiful tunnel, Kaorin's ship not far ahead of them.

* * * * *

Sakaki was the first out of the pod. The pod had been dropped in the empty cargo hold of Kaorin's ship. No one was there to greet her, but the sound of someone running soon sounded. Feet hitting the metal grating echoed down towards the group and not long after, Kaorin came running. She jumped into Sakaki's arms began kissing her all over. Sakaki kissed back, tears of happiness running down her face.

That's where I'm going to end this one. This one dragged on a little longer than the other and I sort of lost the passion with this chapter, which you can probably tell by the decline in quality at the end. But now it's finished and I can get working on newer chapters.

Also, I'm going to try and put Vek in the background for the next few chapters, I used him a lot in this chapter to get things done. But from now on it's going to focus more the azu characters.


	10. Dust 223

Dust 223

(A/N) I was hoping to get this chapter out before Christmas, but my internet provider thinks it's funny to screw with me. I'm using a temporary provider until Telstra can get their act together.

Stephen Adezio; EVE Online was my main inspiration, but as you can see; I've changed a lot of stuff and added some original content. Also, I swapped ship names around, so a Merlin in my story is described as being nothing like the Merlin in EVE. Thanks.

The warp bubble around Kaorin's ship was beginning to break down as they approached their target, the desert planet of Dust 223. All desert planets in the Milky Way Galaxy were called Dust and then given a number to differentiate between them. The Dust planets usually contained some valuable mineral that was mined by a small population, but the resource wasn't abundant enough to build a colony, so a small frontier settlement was built instead, home to maybe few million or less. The planets were terraformed to some extent and given an atmosphere, but little else was done to change the planet. Planets that were worthy of extensive terraformation were given a whole ecosystem based of Earth's. Rainforests, tropical islands, vast savannah plains and temperate forests were planted across the globe and beautiful cities were built in a few years, these were known as Colonial Planets.

Other planets, that had vast resources but were too close to a star or too far away, were turned into industrial worlds. Dedicated solely to mining and manufacturing, these industrial wastelands churned out everything from holo-screens to starship armour and everything in between. Those planets that were close to Colonial planets, but not deemed worthy of terraformation often became Agricultural worlds that could feed billions of people throughout the galaxy.

Dust 223 was a particularly lonely world. It's entire population added up to roughly a million humans. Most of them lived inside the walls of the only city of the planet, the appropriately named; Solitude. The planets only outgoing product was tin. A massive deposit was found there, but because the metal was common throughout the known galaxy, no attempt to turn Dust 223 into an industrial world was made. No station orbited this planet, two moons and a few satellites, but nothing as large as the floating cities above Colonial or Industrial worlds.

The newest addition to Dust 223's high orbit were two frigates. Floating aimlessly above the pale yellow world were the _Thunder Horse_ and the _Choice_. On board the ships, the crews were preparing themselves for atmospheric flight. The _Thunder Horse_ was the only ship with landing gear, so Vek would have to land them all. All seven of them were in his bachelor pad downstairs while Vek sat at his console.

"You let one on, then it's two, then it's seven. I should have learned my lesson sooner." he thought, trying to ignore the sound of all of them talking rose up the stair case. He was a little worried, he had never taken this ship down to a planet before, he was told it could handle it, but he wasn't sure. The man who told him a Hookbill could land on a planet also told him the elves orbiting his head were becoming somewhat rude to each other. And any man called "Porno Pete" who spends his days swatting away the invisible elves around his head and yelling at passers-by, should have his opinion taken as less than reliable.

Beneath Vek's feet, several metres down, Tomo was jumping up and own of his bed. Leaping into the air and touching the ceiling, she fell onto her back, the bounce back throwing her to her feet. "For a mercenary, this guy has a really comfortable bed. Not even the beds of the Hammer were this good. Bet you got up to a sorts of things in this bed, huh, Kagura?" she said between bounces, to Kagura who was watching her from the doorway.

"ah ha ha" she replied sarcastically.

"Oh yeah. I forgot you're a les..." she didn't have time to finish her insult, mid bounce Kagura jumped forward and pushed her to the side, sending her flying over the bed and crashing down on the floor next to it.

"I'm not. So shut up." she warned, leaning over the bed and looking at the dazed wildcat.

Vek spoke up over the ship wife intercom, "Everyone shut up and sit down. I'm going to take us in. I've never done this before; so by staying on this vessel you are agreeing not to sue should any of you suffer broken or loss of limbs." His announcement was less than comforting for the motley crew. Chiyo and Ayumu stuck together closely as the view out the window shifted as the ship moved towards the planet.

As the ship fell into low orbit, the computer presented Vek with several warnings which he moved to the side, focusing solely on keeping the ship together. There were some violent vibrations in the floor as the ship entered the atmosphere. A box jumped up on Vek's screen asking if he wished to disengage the ships artificial gravity. "Um …. Yes?" he answered. The vibrations stopped and Vek felt his stomach rise upwards. The sensation was the same for all on board, internal organs rising into their throats, the last meal being churned around and threatening to evacuate.

"Hey, let's play a game, whoever can hold onto their lunch the longest wins!" Tomo yelled out, seeing the expressions on everyone's' faces. Kagura nodded her head quickly, too afraid to open her mouth in case something burst forth from it. Chiyo and Ayumu were looking green and holding each other firmly. Kaorin and Sakaki were squeezing each others hand firmly. Yomi was clutching the seat fearing she would soon follow her guts upwards.

As the ship entered free fall over the planet, heat energy licked over it's surface. The view from the windows was hidden by the heated gas as the ship tore through the atmosphere. Tomo was beginning to feel the effects of her rising innards. Suddenly she felt very light, like she had inexplicably lost several dozen kilograms from her already lean body. She felt as light as a feather, like she could just drift away. Looking down at the seat, she realised she was drifting away. Already a few inches off the seat and climbing quickly.

The others were experiencing artificial zero gravity too. Lifted off their seats and into the air. Yomi was holding onto her seat, keeping herself firmly planted,her eyes were firmly shut as she focused on keeping the contents of her stomach where they were. Kagura was floating alongside Tomo, her hands clamped over her mouth in an attempt to keep everything down. Sakaki had a shocked look on her face as she rose, Kaorin still clamped on. Tomo seemed to be the only one enjoying herself. She drifted over to a wall and kicked off, propelling herself across the room, while she spun in mid air.

"Haha! This is better than the bed!" she laughed as she flew past Kagura.

Kagura grabbed Tomo's shoulder and pushed her away, causing Tomo to spin. Tomo laughed as her world swirled around her in a blur, then a dizzy feeling overcame her and then a feeling of terrible wrong. Tomo's body realised what was happening and decided it would have no part of it and began emergency procedures, starting with an evacuation of possible toxins she may have recently consumed. Tomo threw up.

The chunky sick hit the floor with a splat, bits of it floated away. Tomo managed to gag down a second eruption, curling up into the foetal position holding her unset stomach and floating away. "Do you think the merc will be upset about what I did to his floor?" she asked, groaning from the sickness inside her.

"I think you should get of the ship as soon as we land and before he finds out" Chiyo suggested.

Vek was ordering the ship to lift up but it wouldn't, it said it was doing as it was told, but there was no actual result. The ship was keeping itself at the correct angle for descent, but ignoring the rapidly approaching ground. Vek dragged the warning back into view and skimmed through them, hoping to find something useful.

"You are approaching a planet …. No, I already know that. Landing gear in folded position … Don't need that now. Autopilot … Yes please !" Vek activated the autopilot and the ship computer took control. Lifting the nose upwards and expanding the wings.

Vek's felt his gut fall back to it's rightful place and away from his lungs. Looking out the front view, the heat energy was gone, replaced by a huge blue sky and an ocean of clouds. Below, the seven floating females came crashing back to the ground. Yomi landed back on her seat, which had been hovering over for the last few minutes, Tomo fell and hit the ground only a few feet from her mess.

"Okay, ladies. I have everything under control. We should be landing within the hour, assuming I can find the place." Vek announced. Tomo still groaned as she lay curled up on the floor.

"You should clean that up, Tomo. Vek wouldn't like that lying on his ship." Yomi warned the groaning girl. Tomo slowly got her feet, her legs threatening to give way at any moment. She found a waste-paper basket in a corner of the room and scooped the puke into it, leaving a slick of vomit running across the floor and put it back in it's corner.

"There. I fixed it. Now be quiet and let me die in peace." she grumbled as she lay down on the couch and curled up again.

"This place is going to smell pretty bad soon. Do you think the acid could eat through the hull?" Ayumu said in her subtle soft voice.

"I don't think it's that strong, Ayumu." Chiyo responded.

"Yeah, but what if, like an alien, got on the ship and threw up. Would that burn the hull?" The small engineer said.

"I don't think we have to worry about that, Ayumu." Chiyo was trying to end another one of Ayumu's aimless conversations.

"Yeah!" Kagura spoke up, "If any alien got on this ship, I could take it." She threw a few punches in the air. "And if I'm not here, this tiger could" she prodded Tomo, who lay perfectly still until the athletic fighter pilot poked her exposed ribs.

"Bugger off, Kagura! I can't do this right now" she grunted, curling into a tighter ball. Osaka stood up and walked away for no apparent reason. She walked over to the window and looked out at the sky. It was bright blue all around, beneath the ship were mountainous clouds that rose up in many shapes.

"This reminds me of my home planet. We were a Dust planet too. I never thought I'd see the clouds from the other side, they look much better from this angle" she said without turning back to the others. "I always wondered what it would be like to fall through a cloud. Probably really soft." she pressed herself up against the glass.

Yomi watched, a puzzled look on her face. She turned to Sakaki, "She fixed your ship?" asking disbelievingly.

"She's a little strange, but put her to work on a ship and she'll find and fix any problem you can think of." Sakaki defended her dull witted companion. Ayumu's voice drifted back to them, but no one paid any real attention to her.

The _Thunder Horse_ flew through the sky high above the desert planet. It had undergone a transformation once the atmospheric auto-pilot had kicked in. The wings and elongated and become more aerodynamic so the ship cut through the sky cleanly. Vek was running a map to try and find the settlement he was looking for. A small community, even by Dust standards. Home to some of Vek's old friends. He found it, a small dark speck on a wide screen of pale yellow. He typed in the coordinates and the ship began to fall through the clouds towards it's target. It only took a few minutes for the ship to arrive at the settlement.

The _Thunder Horse_ blasted over the rolling dunes and did a fly by of the settlement a few hundred metres below. Vek ordered the landing procedure and the ship slowly lowered itself onto the soft sand. It came to a rest just outside the settlement, sand was blown everywhere as the powerful engines lowered the large ship onto the surface. The landing gear came down and the ship came to rest. Because of the ship's shape, it was at a diagonal angle with the bridge being at the top and engines at the bottom. But it seemed to hold so Vek shut down the ship.

A ramp opened from the underside of the ship and touched the sandy ground.

"Huh? That's new." Vek thought as he and the others walked down the ramp. Ayumu stepped onto the sandy ground. Her foot sunk into the soft sand immediately, she could feel the heat radiating off the ground. Heat was bombarding her from above and below.

"This is just like being home again." she thought aloud.

Three people were walking towards them from the settlement ahead. The heat from the ground made the shapes of the people wobble as they approached. Vek used his hand to shade his eyes as he looked to see who coming towards them. The locals were only a few metres away now. They were wearing little clothes, shorts and vests mostly. Their hats covered most of their faces, but features could be seen underneath. Vek stepped forward to greet them. A person on the left suddenly threw of their hat revealing a woman with a shaved head with two short mohawks running across her head. She was smiling manically at Vek.

"Oh crap!" Vek burst into a run with the woman in hot pursuit. The locals laughed at the sight, then turned to Yomi.

"Hi. My name's Zal." The tall man said, offering his hand to Yomi who shook it, unsure of what to do next. The man looked middle aged, maybe a hundred years old or so, but his features showed a long, hard life. Deep lines on rough skin and a stubbly beard. Distpite his rough appearance, his voice was friendly and welcoming. "No need to introduce yourselves, we already know who you are."

"Um, okay. Vek said we could stay here for a while." Yomi said, looking towards the settlement. It had a tall wall running around it, there was an arch above the entranceway.

"Yeah sure. Any friend to "Vek" is a friend to us" The man named Zal said, examining the group behind Yomi. "Come this way and we'll show you to your accommodations". There was a yell that caught everyone's attention. It seemed the woman had brought Vek to the ground and they were now fighting on the floor, kicking up a dust cloud.

"Lisa! Knock it off!" Zal shouted. The female attacker stopped immediately and got to her feet, leaving Vek in the dust. The woman known as Lisa followed the group back to the settlement. The ground in within the walls was harder than the loose sand that surrounded it. The buildings were made mostly of scrap metal and hardened clay. One building looked like it had been built out of a crashed ship, the name of the ship could still be vaguely made out on the side. They were taken into a building made mostly of clay. Inside was a rather nice home, it seemed quiet out of place in a town that looked like it had been built from the remains of another town. There were three bedrooms and a living room with a kitchen corner. A small holo-screen sat in front of the couch.

"If you need anything just find me or Paul here" Zal pointed to the second man who greeted the when they landed. The two men left the women to get used to their new environs.

"This is the second time the someone's house has completely bashed the stereotype." Kagura noted. They sat down on the old couch, no one talked for a minute. Vek walked in and joined them. He was covered in dust and bleeding from a small cut on his head.

"So … Does she always greet you like that?" Kagura asked after short silence.

"Who? Lisa? Yup, ever since we were kids." Vek explained, dismissing his attack as an everyday occurrence.

"Why? Did you do something to her?" Kagura probed deeper.

"That depends of whose story you believe, mine or the truth. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to go repay the favour." Vek jumped up and left, leaving Kagura to wonder why he bothered coming in, in the the first place.

"Alright. Okay, Kaori. Explain why we were taken here?" Yomi asked.

"Ask Kagura. It was Vek's plan to bring you here." Kaori answered, turning the groups attention to Kagura.

"Um … Actually I'm not entirely sure. He said that he a friend here could help us get evidence on Tri-Systems or something. Or did he? I can't remember?" Kagura waved away the attention of the group.

The group fell silent. No one had anything to say or do, so they sat there in silence. A hot breeze blew past, causing immediate condensation on the faces of all the women. They watched the holo-screen while they waited. The heat made all of them dopey, drifting into a sort of half sleep, the sound of the holo-screen faded into the background. Time became a blur as they drifted between conciousness and sleep. Tomo suddenly awoke, she couldn't stand this waiting around so she swiftly left to explore the town.

* * * * *

Vek searched around for his attacker. It had been a while since he was last here, but he still knew his way around. There were only a handful a buildings for her to hide in. He rounded one building and saw an old man sitting on the porch. The man was staring off into the desert, looking to the horizon. His skin looked like leather, wrinkles dominated his features.

"Hey, Pete. Long time no see." Vek greeted. It took a while for the man to register that someone was talking to him. He looked up and saw Vek, his face lightening up immediately.

"Hey there, what are you doing down here?" The old man asked, his voice was as old as he looked.

"The usual. Running from the feds. How you been?"

"Not too good, my legs are goin' and Lisa knows me too well and there aren't a lot of ladies around here." the old man explained, looking sad.

"Yeah. Well it's about time you stopped chasing them around anyway. You still got your internet?"

"Hehehe, they don't call me Porno Pete for nothing. You want some?" The old man laughed.

"No thanks. You know what I'm like." Vek politely declined.

"Still? You're a strange man, Xarian. Wasting your youth like that, got a whole universe of fine women and you decide they're too complicated. I don't see why you think so much about it." Pete swatted at something around his ears, "Damn Elves, won't leave me alone."

"Xarian? Who the hell is Xarian?" Tomo asked, appearing from behind the building.

"A better question is; Who are you?" Pete asked, turning around to see the young fighter pilot. His eyes were already undressing Tomo, who unwittingly stepped closer.

"The name's Tomo Tankino." Tomo introduced herself, her voice full of pride as if her name were some sort of medal or trophy.

"Mmm, sounds interesting" Pete rubbed his chin as he examined Tomo from head to toe.

"Control yourself, Porno. She just got here, don't scare her off." Vek warned.

"You didn't answer my question; Who is Xarian?" Tomo reiterated.

"He's Xarian. Didn't he tell you his name?" Pete pointed at Vek with his bonny finger.

"No, he didn't. He told us it was Vek." Tomo looked at the mercenary named Xarian, her arms folded.

"Vek?" Pete looked puzzled. "You aren't still doing that, Xarian? I thought you grew out of that?" Pete scolded the merc.

Xarian, or Vek, was looking increasingly angry. His real name had been found out and he was being treated like a child again.

"Yeah, Xarian. It's very childish." Tomo joined in patronising the mercenary.

"You want to know some more stuff? Come here, I'll tell you." Pete motioned Tomo to come closer.

"Don't do it, Tomo. Trust me." Xarian warned.

"Why? Trying to keep more of your other secrets from me?" Tomo smirked, knowing she had the merc at a disadvantage.

Xarian gave sly smile and left. Tomo watched him leave then stepped closer to the old man to hear what he had to say. She leaned over for the old man to talk, but instead found his hand had gripped her rear end. She jumped and let out a small yelp of surprise, but the old man held on. She smacked away his hand and he let out a chuckle. Tomo backed away quickly, blood filling her cheeks. She ran back to the house the others were staying in, shouting back at Pete before he lost sight of her.

She burst through the door ands sat down heavily next to a sleeping Yomi. The couch pillow shifted and Yomi flopped over onto Tomo, who was quick to push her off. The manhandling awoke Yomi, throwing her back into the waking world.

"What? Huh? What is it?" She grumbled as her mind tried to figure what was happening.

"I just met the town pervert." Tomo informed her.

"Oh. That's nice." Yomi stood up and shakily walked into the nearest bedroom. She fell onto the squishy bed and fell asleep again. A cold breeze rolled through the open window, sending a shiver up Koyomi's spine. She curled up tighter and pulled the covers over herself.

*

A man sat at his desk in his cool office. He was lost deep in thought. He had just seen the news reporting on the escape of Captain Koyomi Mizuhara. His plan was falling apart around him, but it wasn't to late for damage control. He had to figure out a way to get his plan back on track, this current state of affairs was too unstable for him, but as long as the Captain stayed in exile he should have enough time to figure out a way to fix the situation. If he could find a way to track down that annoying captain and silence her, the Federation would be none the wiser.

The stern woman entered his office. "Sir, a ship orbiting the planet has just landed near the worker settlement."

The man looked up at her. "So?"

"It was a Hookbill. The same design that may have been involved in the bust out of Captain Mizuhara."

The business man sat up. "Do you think they could one and the same?"

"It is possible, sir. Do you wish to investigate further?"

The suit was quiet for a second as he thought over his options. "Yes. Send a small police force to investigate the worker settlement. If they find anything, have them report it in, but take no further action, is that understood?" He ordered. The woman nodded and left the office. The man stood up and walked over to the large window. He could vaguely see the settlement in the distance. From his position he couldn't see the ship his associate had spoken off, but he trusted it was there. A few drops of water hit the glass as the massive, dark clouds passed over headed for the settlement. He guessed the storm would break over the ramshackle town.

"Let's see how your little town deals with the first thunder storm this planet has ever witnessed." A sinister smile grew out of the corners of his mouth.

* * * * *

Xarian was walking through the centre of the town. Standing still for a second he felt a cold, strong breeze blow past him. He took no notice of it at first, but then something clicked inside his head.

"Wait, it's never cold here." he thought, he looked up at the sky and saw a massive, dark cloud moving towards them. The cloud light up as bolt of lightning was born and shot down to earth. "What the hell is that doing here?!" Xarian said aloud. Dust 223 had never had a weather system, it barely had an atmosphere. Clouds were rare and never dropped any rain on the barren earth bellow. Xarian wasn't the last to notice the dark clouds looming nearer. Zal had come out of his home and was standing next to Xarian.

"Hmm, how has that been there?" Zal asked.

"I was hoping you tell me that. There weren't any storms when I lived here, how long have you been getting them?"

"That's the first. Maybe those bastards at the Tri-Systems base finally got 'round to giving us a proper weather system."

"Tri-Systems? What are Tri-Systems doing here?" Xarian asked quickly.

"They own this rock. Bought a few years ago. What's wrong?"

"My current employer is at odds with them, that's all I'm saying. What are they doing?"

"It's a laboratory, I think. Mostly it's just administration for this section. They leave us alone and we leave them alone."

Xarian saw a possible lead for Yomi's investigation. He returned to the house they were staying at. He found all of them asleep on the couch, except Tomo who had wandered into one of the adjoining rooms. Yomi was missing from the group. Xarian slammed the door and it made a loud crash that woke all the occupants of the room, except for one.

Chiyo jumped from her seat and let out a scream of surprise. Adrenaline pumped into her, but her surprise quickly faded once she found the source of the noise. The others were yanked violently from their sleep by Xarian's wake up call, Tomo re-entered the room, drawn by the noise Xarian had made. The small engineer still lay sleeping, a small smile gracing her peaceful face.

"What was that for?" Kagura asked, fighting off sleep.

"I've just learned something and someone wake her up" Xarian ordered pointing at the snoozing girl.

Chiyo shook the sleepy engineer gently. "Ayumu, wake up please." she asked, her shaking was more likely rocking the girl deeper into sleep rather than waking her.

"Tomo, stop slamming doors!" Yomi shouted, sticking her head out of the door.

"It wasn't me! Why do you always think it's me!" Tomo shouted back.

"Stop shouting!" Kaori shouted out, silencing both women and waking Ayumu.

"Huh? Who's shouting?" Ayumu mumbled as she slowly sat up, rubbing her eyes.

"Okay, listen up." Xarian yelled, trying to recapture their attention.

"What do you want, Xarian?" Tomo asked, smirking as she revealed Vek's real name to the group.

"Zarian?" Kagura looked to Tomo for an explanation.

"No, Xarian, with an 'X'." Tomo corrected

"How did you know I was thinking 'Z' and not 'X'? They sound exactly the same!"

"Don't you worry your squishy little head about it, Kagura. What was your little plan, Xarian?"

Xarian looked at Tomo with contempt in his eyes. He inhaled a long breath, then spoke, "I just found out that there's a Tri-Systems base about a hundred kilometres away. They must know something about the corporation's plans with Yomi. Yomi, I'll talk to you by yourself in a moment. Also, there's a big ass storm about to hit, just giving you a warning." He wasn't sure how much of his speech had gotten through to the half asleep crews, but reasoned that enough had been processed for them to know what was going on. He joined Yomi in her room and closed the door.

"What? Something about a big ass?" Kagura mumbled, the words from Xarian had gone by too quickly for most of them to catch anything more than a handful of words.

"He better not be talking about my Sakaki." Kaori said, holding the taller woman closer, using her bosom as a pillow.

* * * * *

Yomi sat on the bed rubbing her eyes while Xarian spoke.

"I don't know if the Tri-Systems guys know we're here yet, so I think we're safe for now. What I want to do is get a look through their computer, preferably one of the executives. Hopefully there will be one managing the base, if we can get in I'm sure I can 'convince' him to part with the info." Xarian talked while Yomi listened, her brain was still waking up, but she was absorbing as much as she could, focusing on each word her mercenary said.

"Any idea how we get in?" she said, her voice slightly groggy.

Xarian was quiet for a second, "Short of blasting our way through, I don't know. We would have to do some scout work to find a way …." he was interrupted by someone bashing on the door.

"Vek! Get out here quickly" came Zal's voice, it sounded urgent. Xarian followed his friend out, Yomi not far behind. "Look. They're coming." Zal pointed to a cloud of dust coming from the direction of the Tri-Systems base. "They probably just want to find out about your ship, but if your friends are in trouble, you're gonna want them out of sight."

"Is your storage cellar still around?"

"Yup, half full of sand, but they can hide in there if they stay low."

"Okay. Yomi, get the others and yourself in that cellar. We'll take care of the corp guys." Xarian said. Yomi listened, rounding up the other crew members and Zal directed them to his flooded cellar.

The entrance was hidden under a layer of sand and the interior was full except for a few feet of room at the top. Yomi was the last in, just before Zal shut the entrance, Koyomi got a clear view of the dark sky. She could feel the storm wanting to break, an electrical charge in the air. Zal closed the entrance way and covered it in sand again, hoping the investigators wouldn't notice the disturbed sand. Yomi and the others lay on their stomachs in the cool sand, they could hear muffled voices. Above them were the wooden floorboards of Zal's house.

The investigators were getting close now, Xarian could now make out the vehicles they were driving. The Hover-cars were skimming over the sand towards the township, their grav-plates pushed up sand causing the dust the announced their presence. Zal looked up at the darkened sky, the lightening was getting close now, the thunder booms were loud and could be felt as much as heard. Paul had joined the two men awaiting the arrival of the investigators. The cars pulled up in front of the three men and a tall man stepped out.

He was wearing a professional uniform. Khaki shirt with body armour over it, khaki shorts and shoes well suited to walking in loose sand. His large sunglasses reflected the three men before him well. He stepped towards them and removed the glasses.

"Evening, Captain Falva. What seems to be the problem?" Zal asked like he asked many times before.

"Evening, Zal. Just showed up to see who the new arrivals were and to make sure they weren't bringing anything bad to your little town." The officer replied.

"Well, he's the only the arrival and you can trust us not to stand for any vices he may bring. Anything else?" Zal replied, nodding to Xarian.

"Sorry about this, man. Boss wants us to look around for anything out of the ordinary. You don't mind, do you?"

"Nah. Look around all you like. Porno Pete's a little out of it today. Just thought I'd warn you." Zal and the others moved out of the way to let the officers into the township.

The group of seven investigators broke up and looked around the small town. A young officer found Pete sitting in his chair watching the looming storm overhead. "Hey there, sonny." he greeted the officer.

"Hello." the officer replied.

"You seen those pretty things around town? My, my. If my legs were working, you wouldn't be able to hold me back, hehehe" Pete said, catching the officer's attention.

"What 'pretty things'?" he asked, keen to know if he had just found something important.

"A whole ship of 'em arrived! One was talking to me earlier and I got a little squeeze, hehe. Can hardly wait for the other's to come 'round." Pete began rocking in his chair.

"A ship of women arrived today? How many?" The officer was sure he had stumbled upon some valuable info.

Oh, about seven." Pete swatted the air around his head. "These stinkin' elves won't leave me alone, do you have anything to help?"

The young officer's hopes dropped. No information here, just one crazy, perverted old man. He cursed silently to himself as he moved on in search of any more clues.

Another officer entered Zal's home. Half heartedly looking around. Under his feet lay the seven women, six of the most wanted women in Federation space. As he stepped, dust fell down onto them. Yomi's heart was racing, as were the hearts of all six others. Ayumu's nose began to tickle as some fine dust fell beside her. Everyone knew what was coming. She held her nose and mouth shut as the first sneeze hit. Her body spazzed as the energy of the sneeze found a way out, another more powerful sneeze rocker her body. Then it was gone. She released her nose and took a breath. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief as her little fit ended. She smiled and gave a thumbs up.

"AACHOOO!" KKRAACKK!! Ayumu sneezed loudly and forcibly. At the same time a bolt of lightning hit the water tower, creating a thunderous boom that completely hid her sneeze. The officer above them jumped at the loud sound.

"Bloody thunder" he mumbled to himself and continued his search. There was a tapping on the roof of the house that grew louder and more frequent. The first rain this land had ever witnessed was falling and falling hard. The sound of the rain pelting the roof was deafening for the officer, enough so that he decided to cut his search short.

Outside the rain was hitting the officer hard, but underground, the woman were facing a problem. The water was beginning to fill their small hideout, it was falling faster than the thirsty earth could absorb it. The water was already wetting the parts of their bodies that were touching the ground. They could hold their heads another foot higher, but that was it. The water was rising at a dramatic rate, quickly approaching an inch deep in only a minute of rainfall. Above ground the investigators continued their search, their range of view was being cut down by the heavy rain.

As the officers searched, the water levels rose. They were holding themselves up to escape the water that was now nearly six inches deep. An investigator had just found the entrance to the cellar, the sand washed away by the rain. He pulled up the trapdoor and looked inside.

(A/N) End it right there. That's ten chapters down, and hopefully ten more to go at least. Hope you all enjoyed reading.


	11. Rev Heads

Rev Heads

Yomi shuffled back in the water, backing up as far she could go. The investigator opened the trap door and looked down into the dark cellar. Staring down into the dark water he noticed some ripples, he would have investigated further were it not for another bolt of lightning hitting the town behind him. He slammed the door shut and left, he wasn't paid enough to search cold, dark cellars full of sand and water.

All the guards met up the middle of the town, the compact sand was turning to mud under their feet.

"We've searched the town, sir. Nothing out of the ordinary." one officer reported, shivering in the cold rain.

"The ship's clear too, sir. There's nothing here." another reported.

"Alright then. Let's get back to base." The head officer said,, dismissing his men.

"Hey, captain." Zal ran up the officer, "Any idea what all this is?" he pointed to the sky.

"Ask the guys at the base. They'll know." the officer replied, not helping Zal in anyway.

The guards piled into their cars and quickly left, flying over the wet sand. Xarian watched the light of their cars disappear through the heavy rain. Zal opened the cellar and pulled the woman out. The rain had risen so high, they had only a few inches of space left to breath in. They were soaked to the bone, shivering as they stood in the heavy rain. Zal ushered them into their house, water was dripping through the roof, a heavy wind blew through, knocking over several items on tables.

Zal gave them some old towels to dry themselves off with, but the absorbency of the towels was a mere shadow of what it used to be. The women wiped away whatever water they could, but their clothes were still soaked. The only woman not huddled up in the living room with towel draped over her, was Ayumu. She was running around outside, jumping in puddles and having a great time. A boom of thunder sounded and Ayumu ducked down in fright, but jumped up again and carried on playing. Zal watched her from the porch, laughing himself. Xarian at his side, also laughing.

"How old is she?" Zal asked.

"Dunno, about twenty I think. Maybe a little older."

"She acts like she's five."

"I know. She weird, but kinda cute as well."

"How come you always get the chicks, but you act like a militant monk or something." Zal pushed Xarian off the porch into the rain. Xarian jumped back under cover quickly.

"Militant monk? I guess that's one way of describing me. She's just an employer, okay? I didn't pick her up in a bar or anything, actually, wait. Yes I did. But the relationship is purely professional." Xarian defended himself.

"Sure. So why did you bring them here?"

"You used to work for Tri-Systems, right?"

"Technically I still do."

"Yeah. What would Tri-Systems have to gain from blowing up a space station?"

Zal was silent for a second as he thought. "Several obvious reasons, to get rid of competition, destroy a new product that could make one of theirs obsolete, to silence someone who could speak against the corp." he suggested.

"Why would they crash a multi-billion credit starship into a station to kill some guy they could have assassinated for a few thousand. Seems incredibly risky too, if they got caught, Tri-Systems would be ruined. Share price suicide." Xarian replied.

"I don't know, some guy offers to fire half his staff to cut costs and gets rewarded for his loyalty, he is rewarded for throwing those with less income than himself into the fire? These people are insane and not the good insane, either." Zal offered. "You could check out that base they have, I'm sure one of the execs there would know a little about it, or at least what they had to gain by it."

"I was thinking that. But I haven't figured out how to get in. Any advice?"

"Talk to Lisa. She'll probably give you one of her buggies to get around with." Zal suggested.

"What about the plane? That still around?

"Yes. You could fly over, they might shoot you down though."

* * * * *

The door opened behind him. The executive turned around, curious to find the cause of the disturbance. It was his Captain of the Guard, reporting in from his trip to the settlement. His clothes were covered in a thin layers of dust, except in a few places were rain drops had washed it away.

"What do you have to report?" the executive asked.

"We found no trace of any newcomers, sir. Only one pilot returning from a trip. No others." the Captain replied, standing at attention, keeping his eyes on the executives legs and well away from his eyes. One funny look at this man could land him on the front line of a raid on pirate station.

"What was the name of the pilots ship?"

"Um, the Thunder Horse, sir. It was the same make as the ship that attacked the prison ship. Do you want us to contact the authorities?"

The executive looked the Captain right in the eyes. There was no obvious sign of anger, but the unfortunate guardsman felt it wash over him.

"No." the word was strong and flat, straight to the point. "It is the wrong ship. We don't want to waste the Federation's time. Thank you Captain Falva. That will be all." the executive dismissed. The Captain quickly left, just being in the same room as that man felt strangely wrong. An overpowering desire to leave the area overcame him every time he was forced to talk to him.

The tight haired woman who had been standing in the corner and gone unnoticed by the guardsman stepped forward. "The Thunder Horse has been found. When do you want to beginning the operation?"

"Give them a day. See if they tempt fate and come a little closer. Are our contractors in Solitude still planet side?"

"Yes, sir. They can be here by sunrise. Do you want them summoned?"

The executive returned a look that said "What the hell do you think?". The tight haired woman seemed to pick up of this and left the room silently

* * * * *

The storm didn't end for many more hours, the darkened sky hovering over the settlement. Thunder boomed and echoed across the soaked wasteland. The smell of sodden earth and ozone filled the air. Chiyo stepped out and inhaled the cool air, breathing deeply. The centre of the town was muddy, deep footprints filled with water marked the path of someone who had walked through in the middle of the night. A bolt of lightning struck the ground many miles away, soon after, a thunder roll sounded. A distant, deep rumble.

Chiyo could vaguely make out the rising sun in the distance, hidden behind thick clouds. Chiyo began her morning stretching exercises. Watching the star rise from behind planet was fun, but seeing the sight for several years, it got boring. This was the first planetary sun rise Chiyo had seen since she left her home world. Her home world was a temperate one, covered in thick forests and misty hills, a far cry from this barren land. The thick clouds overhead reminded her of the winters on her home world, heavy snow storms that could seal people in their homes for days on end.

Chiyo was joined by Sakaki. She stood there, enjoying the view and breathing the moist air. Sakaki stood silently while Chiyo did her exercises. Chiyo felt someone nearby her and turned to see Sakaki standing there quietly.

"Good morning, Sakaki." She said happily, smiling at the tall women.

"Morning, Chiyo. How are you today?" She asked. It always made Sakaki happy to see her small crew-mate smile.

"I'm good. Seeing the dark sky reminds me of my home planet. Except for all the sand. I lived right next to a massive forest, full of squirrels, foxes, bunnies..." Chiyo listed the local wildlife.

"Bunnies?" Sakaki thought, she suppressed a blush from rising. She was born in space and never got to see many animals other than in holo-vids or books. What she wouldn't give to cuddle one of those small, furry creatures. Sakaki joined Chiyo in her exercises and the two passed the time until the others had awoke.

Xarian, previously known as Vek, got them together to explain what they could so for the day.

"Alright, you can go anywhere you like. If you see the corp guys coming, try to hide somewhere, if they find you, I'm not sure what they'll do to you. Lisa and I are going for a scouting run. I'm going in an airlite plane, Lisa's going in a buggy. Anyone care to join?" Xarian offered.

Tomo and Kagura jumped on the idea. Tomo had always wanted to drive a dune buggy, especially in the middle of a desert. Kagura decided to join Xarian. He didn't complain, he had gotten used to her being there. Lisa took Tomo out back, where two skeletal cars were waiting. A metal frame, engine and old tires were all that made up the buggy, the seats were old and worn, the brittle sponge exposed.

"So how do you drive these things?" Tomo asked, as she sat on the old seat, gripping the steering wheel and examining the barren insides of the vehicle.

"Two pedals; accelerate and brake. Three gears; forward, backward and neutral. Easiest thing to drive in the word." Lisa explained as she entered her buggy. Her voice was friendly but slightly more masculine then it have been. "Follow me."

The buggy roared into life, the engine rattling inside it's cage. Lisa took off, sending moist sand flying from under her wheels. Tomo followed, building up speed until she was whizzing over the sand. It took her a few minutes to get used to the handling of the swift car, but soon she had enough confidence to show off her skills. She ramped over a tall dune, sending the car flying for a few seconds before it hit the soft sand and Tomo was jerked forward, laughing continuously. Lisa interrupted this show off as a challenge, which she gladly accepted. She drove parallel to Tomo, only a metre apart. Lisa spun her steering wheel and changed gear, her buggy turned 180 degrees , slowly down considerably. Another swift gear change and a stomp of the accelerator and Lisa was back with Tomo. Only this time she was driving backwards, a smug smile on her face as she saw Tomo's surprised expression. Lisa completed the manoeuvre, spinning her car another 180 degrees so she was driving forwards once more.

"Beat that!" Lisa yelled over the noise of the wind rushing past and the engines roaring.

Tomo thought for a second . She mimicked Lisa's trick, turning sharply and cranking the gears to neutral and then reverse. It turned out to be a lot harder than Tomo thought. Her trick failed half way through, she had turned the car 90 degrees when the momentum carried her forward, the buggy's wheels sank into the wet ground. The bottom half slowed while the top half carried on, resulting in a flip. The buggy was thrown two metres into the air, doing a complete 360 degree spin as it travelled forwards. It landed on it's wheels, hitting the ground hard.

Lisa slammed the brakes as soon as the car left the ground. Only a second or two later it hit the ground. Lisa rushed over to the drivers seat. Inside was a very dazed looking Tomo. She was rocking back and forth gently, not focusing on anything. She had no apparent injuries. Tomo looked at Lisa, taking a second to figure out that the swirling colours in front of her were Lisa.

"That was completely on purpose." Tomo groaned. She leaned forward suddenly, facing the ground. She let out a loud belch. She leaned back and groaned, "sorry, that was supposed to be puke, but I haven't eaten anything yet."

* * * * *

Kagura followed Xarian to a rust shed. Inside was a small, white plane. The cockpit was only just large enough for two people to sit, if they pulled their legs up they could sit up straight. It's wings were detached and leaning against the wall in the shed, so were the two smell engines. Xarian pulled it out into the open and began assembling it. It only took a few minutes before it was flight worthy. It's wings were longer than the whole plane, including the long, thin tail section.

"That's a plane? It's tiny." Kagura noted.

"We have a smaller one, but we can't find it." Xarian replied sitting in the small seat, feeling the controls.

Kagura sat in the seat next to him, between them was the control stick. Near her head was a collection of switches and buttons. Xarian flicked several of them and the engines buzzed into life. He accelerated to a clear stretch of land and took off. The plane rose high into the air, leaving the ground far beneath them. Horizontal lines of water formed on the glass window as the plane flew through a light shower. Kagura looked down the the ground, it was a uniform dark yellow, except for two lines where the ground had churn up and the dry sand thrown to the surface.

Xarian noticed the paths in the sand and flew lower to get a better view. "That'll be Lisa and Tomo. Let's get a better view."

He descended down until the plane was only a storey or so above the ground. He followed the paths Tomo and Lisa had made in the sand, they led towards the distant Tri-Systems base. A dark patch in the uniform yellow of the desert. There wasn't much to look at below them, so Kagura struck up a conversation to keep boredom at bay.

She had to speak up to be heard over the buzzing of the engines. "So what's your relationship with Lisa?"

"Pseudo-sibling. We've know each other since we were little. More like a brother than a sister." Xarian laughed.

Kagura laughed a little too, "So this is your home-world?"

"No. Well, for a while. I wasn't born here. Landed when I was about five, left when I was seventeen. Lisa was the only kid here, so she and I were friends."

"What sort of stuff did you do? It doesn't look like there's a lot of stuff to do out here."

"Raced buggies, beat each other up, fixed things. That sort of stuff."

"You beat up a girl?" Kagura shifted in her seat, moving as far away from Xarian as possible in the cramped cockpit.

"She beat me up too. We were pretty evenly matched, it wasn't serious fighting, just play fights. Besides, she's only a girl in body." Xarian defended.

"You've never really experienced femininity, have you?"

"I've seen it on holovids and stuff. And from what I've seen, it is waaaaay too complicated for me. That's one reason why I'm asexual; get rid of women and life becomes so much easier to understand."

"So you don't like feminine women? What about me?" Kagura asked. Xarian seemed to freeze as she asked the question. He kept his eyes fixed on the empty sky ahead of them as he carefully thought out his answer.

"You're …. Okay, I guess. You aren't as annoyingly emotional and girly as I thought you would be." He finally said, each word came forth very carefully, like he was talking someone through dismantling a bomb.

"I'll take that as a compliment." Kagura dismissed. She looked down and saw a large crater, the soil blackened, even after the heavy rains. The crater could easily be a hundred metres in diameter.

"What happened down there?" she asked as they flew over the darkened earth.

"Some guy blew up the old settlement. We were all out of town at the time when the bomb went off so no one was hurt. We had to rebuild the whole settlement." Xarian explained, looking down on the blasted earth.

Whoa, did they ever catch the guy?"

"Nope. I'm still at large. Haha."

* * * * *

Ayumu was still tired from the night before. She had played in the storm until Chiyo had to literally drag her back into the house to dry off. She was lying on the couch, her feet resting on the lap of her long time friend, Chiyo and her head held up by some old cushions. Chiyo was reading a book while Ayumu drifted in and out of deep thought. Her eyes settled on the cover of the book. It was worn and most of the colours had faded. The cover was of a group of ragtag pirates standing in front of their ship with a sun rising behind them

The images brought back old memories of Ayumu's childhood. The ship on the book cover was the same make as one that Ayumu had converted into a club house for her and her friends. Then a dust storm blew through and half of it was buried beneath the shifting sands of the vast desert. Ayumu mourned the loss of her creation, but what the desert took, it gave back in the form of a virtually untouched frigate. Even the computer was in good enough condition to get some information on how the ship was doing. By then Ayumu was in her mid-teens, she and her friends raised the frigate from the ground and invested their time in it for three long years until one day it was space worthy.

Ayumu and the crew of the _Desert Phoenix _(although it looked more like a Frankenstein's monster) took their baby up into the dark expanse and warped to the first station they could find. It was orbiting the jungle world of Dilmur. Dark and light green covered it's surface, large, deep blue oceans broke up the continents of greenery. A massive thunder storm was moving across it's northern continent. It was the first world any of them had seen with their own eyes apart from their little Dust world.

They docked in the station, which turned out to be a major residential station. A city in high orbit. Ayumu and the others made it their permanent residence. Sharing a small apartment or living on their ship, the group made a small living. Ayumu and her friend got into the local Engineering Academy, accepted after they showed the headmaster they had built their own ship to get there.

Chiyo noticed the small smile on the face of her companion. Curiosity got the better of her and she spoke, "Penny for your thoughts".

It took Ayumu a second to snap out of her daze. "I was just thinking about my life before I met you and Sakaki. When I had my own ship."

"Oh. When we met you on that station above the jungle planet. After what happened to your crew." Chiyo said, lowering her voice at the end of her sentence.

"Five years of my life went into making sure the engines and systems on that ship worked to perfection." Ayumu's voice began to fill with tone of sorrow, a rare thing for the normally happy girl. When Ayumu was sad, it made everyone around her sad. "Then one day; the universe sees you and says '_You, happy person. I've been looking for you. Guess what I'm about to do_.' and then poof! your whole life is flipped around."

Chiyo knew exactly what Ayumu was talking about. It had happened a few years back. Ayumu had fallen asleep in her room on the station while the rest of her crew took the ship out to try out the new modification they had added. It hadn't been installed properly, resulting in a burn out of some vital systems, the reactor burst and the ship was flooded with hard radiation. In only a few seconds, everyone on board was dead. The ghost ship drifted towards the station until the station guns reduced Ayumu's hard work to little more than dust.

Ayumu was left with nothing but what was in the room. Her clothes and a few personal possessions, both hers and her friends'. She didn't have any of those any more, they were consumed by the reactor explosion on the _Neko-Koneko._

Both girls were quiet for a moment. Ayumu's sadness had filled the room like a mist. But Chiyo's unbreakable spirit shone through and she dragged them out of the small depression. Jumping up from her seat, knocking Ayumu's legs aside.

"Come on, Ayumu. Let's go outside." Chiyo pulled up Ayumu and dragged her outside. The dark sky still hung overhead, the rumble of distant thunder sounded. A cool breeze blew through the empty town.

"I want to go up there." Ayumu pointed to the top of a water tower. It was the tallest structure in the settlement, looking down on the small community. A rusty ladder led up to a small platform around the dome at the top. Despite having spent many yearson spaceships, knowing that was nothing but an infinite emptiness beneath her feet, Chiyo still didn't like heights. She quickly thought up an excuse not to join her friend on the platform and kept her feet firmly planted on the moist ground.

* * * * *

Yomi was enjoying the peace and quiet. The distant sound of thunder boomed. Yomi was preparing, what she had been told, by Zal, was a shower. It was a small, walled off section at the back of the house, no roof, just some shoulder high walls. There was a shower head attached to a big cylinder that hung overhead. There was a plastic bag wrapped around the shower head, presumably to hold the water in. Yomi stripped down and stepped under the cylinder, removing the bag released a the cool water. Normally heated by the desert sun, this water was colder than normal, but Yomi loved the feeling of the grim being washed away. This was also the first shower she had taken outside, it felt oddly pleasant. Yomi wasn't the only one who thought so...

On the metallic roof, a silent observer positioned himself for a clear view of the shower area, gripping a hole in the slanted roof to keep himself falling down onto his item of interest. Looking down on Yomi, he got a great top-down view of her, he leaned back a little to get a better angle on his target. Finally he found a comfortable position that gave him a good view of the show.

Yomi began washing down her body, feeling the grim she had collected wash away. Apart from the sound of distant thunder and the sound of the water hitting her, there was nothing to be heard. Then a creak sounded behind her. She spun around and covered her chest. Without her glasses, the world was but a blur. She couldn't see anyone around, the wall of the house was all one colour and so were walls of the shower, so anyone standing nearby would have been easily seen. The roof, however was a collection of different coloured metal plates and Yomi couldn't tell what was metal and what wasn't. She listened carefully, nothing out of the ordinary. She turned back to her shower, still keeping her ears peeled for more noise.

The voyeur froze. She was looking right at him, her eyes squinted as she looked right through him. His heart beat fast, faster than it had in a while and sweat formed on his brow. He held his breath and remained perfectly still. She peered at him a few more seconds before returning to her shower. The observer was confused for a second. "Why didn't she see me?" he thought, then noticed the glasses sitting on the wall next to her. A smile spread across his old face. With his free hand, he reached into his pocket to pull out a little camera. He fumbled it open and began aiming, before he could get a shot, something buzzed around his face, obscuring his view for a second. He swatted at the pest. His old hands lost grip of the camera and it want flying, hitting the mud next to the shower wall with a splat.

Yomi spun around, she was sure there was something near her, she had heard something land next to her. She looked at her feet. All she could see was the yellow tiles she was standing on and the light brown sandy mud around her. Yomi considered ending her shower than, but the sound of a bird call changed her mind. Hearing real birds was rare for a space pilot, only captains who brought them on board could enjoy the chirping and whistling of the small creatures, or sometimes large creatures. "Strange, I haven't seen any birds around here." she thought, the bird call continued, until the bird got bird and flew away. Leaving Yomi with her silence once more.

The voyeur stop his whistling, it had seemed to work. Now the trouble was how to get his camera back. He could just watch the show live, but he wanted to keep these memories to add to his collection. His grip slipped from the the roof and he fell to the floor.

Yomi spun around, she could see the sprawled figure of a person on the floor, she let out a scream and covered herself with her clothes. Sakaki and Kaorin, who had cuddling on the couch, heard the scream and rushed out to find out the problem. The found Yomi, half naked and Porno Pete laying on his stomach. Zal heard the scream and he too rushed to Yomi's side.

"Pete! Dammit, I told you to stop this!" Zal shouted, grabbing the old man by the collar and dragging him away. "Sorry about this, Yomi. I thought he couldn't walk anymore". Zal dragged Pete back to his house.

"You should make him wear a bell!" Yomi shouted, her face full of anger and embarrassment.

"We tried, he kept taking it off. I thought he was crippled, I have no idea how he got onto the roof. I'll make sure it doesn't happen again."

"Aw come on, Zal. This never happens and I wanted to use the situation." Pete protested.

"I've told you hundreds of times; You do not perv on people!"Zal scolded the old man like he was a child.

"It's not my fault!" Pete cried out, but Zal carried on dragging him. Pete was hand cuffed to his chair, which was nailed to the floor, by the looks of it, the chair had been nailed down, many, many times before and the arms were scratched up badly.

"You know how it works. See you tomorrow." Zal left the old man to his dirty thoughts and returned to his job.

* * * * *

Tomo had recovered from her little crash and now the two were driving at full throttle once again. They had quit trying to show off and were now drag racing across the desert flats. The two cars were pretty much even, tying the speed freaks. The engines roared as they were pushed to their limit, Tomo could feel the heat even with all the wind blowing through her. The race ended when they ran out of flat ground. Lisa took her up to the top of a dune where they got a good view of the Tri-Systems base only a few hundred metres away.

"I almost forgot why were out here in the first place." Tomo said, looking down at the small compound. She could see a tall tower rising up from the circular base. A tall wall surrounded the base, there was one entrance which was guarded by two small guard towers. Inside, Tomo could see vehicles parked or moving around. There were a couple of buildings around the large tower.

"What are they trying to keep out?" Tomo asked, observing the large walls.

"Anyone who isn't part of the corp. The execs like to make lots of defences to make themselves feel important. What a waste of money, like any of us would try to break in." Lisa commented.

"Isn't that what we're going to do?"

"I mean normally. We're only doing it 'cause of you guys and Xarian. I think I see a way in. There.." Lisa pointed at a section wall that was behind one of the buildings.

"Why, what's there" Yomi squinted, trying to see what Lisa was pointing out. But from their distance, she couldn't see anything.

"There's a big crack. With enough force, you should be able to blast it open, or if you're feeling stealthy, pull it right of the wall.

"Wow. How did you see that? You must have amazing eye sight!" Tomo was amazed, she couldn't see any crack on the wall, she couldn't even see what the wall was made out of. It could have been cheese for all she knew.

"Not really. I made that a few months ago when I crashed into the side of it." Lisa answered. "I doubt they would have fixed it so it should still be there."

There was a small buzzing sound that grew progressively louder, Tomo looked around for the source of the noise, as did Lisa. There were no other cars they could see, looking into the sky revealed the answer, it was Xarian's plane approaching them. It buzzed over them passing low enough for them to feel the rush of air it made.

"There goes your homosexual brother." Tomo said, watching the plane turn around for another strafing run.

"He's not homosexual and he isn't my brother." Lisa corrected.

"Are you sure? "cause Kagura told me that he's pretty uninterested in all things female. Was he always like that or did Kagura mess him up so bad he can never feel another thing down there again?"

"No, he's always disliked girly things. So have I actually." Lisa sat back in her buggy, turning the ignition. Tomo sat down too.

"Figures then that he's go for the tomboy."

"I don't think he's gone for her. If I know Xarian, and I do, the more a women tries to get his attention the more he's likely to tell her to get lost."

"So he's the mysterious type?"

"No. He says that guys who act uninterested and distant are cry babies and need a punch to the face, so I don't think he would try to emulate them. He prefers to scare women off by being slightly insane and unapproachable. It usually works, but obviously not on your friend up there." Lisa and Tomo turned around and ended back for the desert flats for more racing.

* * * * *

"That was Lisa and Tomo down there" Xarian explained as he turned the plane around. "They've probably found a way in. We can't get much closer without the guards getting suspicious."

Kagura was looking for a pair of binoculars, zooming in to examine the walls. "What's the wildlife here like?"

"Non-existent. Some pets and a zoo in the main city. Other than that; zip. Why?"

"I wonder why they have such thick walls? Seems like a really waste of money."

"Why do people buy big ass military vehicles to drive to coffee shops? Because their lives are so dull and empty, so devoid of meaning, probably castrated by their dead-end jobs, that they need to feel alive again. It's a waste in every sense of the word and those people are morons. Now I've forgotten where I was going with that. Sorry." Xarian said, after derailing his train of thought. "Oh yeah, people buy things they don't need to make themselves feel important. Probably some paranoid executive."

* * * * *

The mercenaries hired by Tri-Systems were waiting patiently for their orders. They stood in their uniforms, face masks hiding most of their features. This small group were standing in the guard towers, the rest of their company was waiting in their vehicles in the compound around the tower. All-Terrain trucks, armoured personnel carriers and quadbikes sat quietly, waiting eagerly for the order.

The executive looked out the window. He could see the small plane in the distance. He raised his phone to his mouth and gave the order. "Bring it down." A single mercenary, armed with a high power sniper rifle, fired. The large calibre bullet flew straight and hit the left engine of Xarian's plane. The engine died immediately and the plane rapidly descended.

All the mercenary vehicles revved into life and sped out of the gates. A small group of quads and motorbikes broke off from the larger group and sped to their targets; the two buggies.

"What the hell was that?!" Xarian asked himself loudly, seeing the black smoke pouring from the mangled remains of his engine. The plane was light enough to glide and didn't really need the engines that much, but whatever had hit the engine had also ripped away a large section of the wing, making it very difficult to control.

Kagura grabbed onto the frame of the plane to stop being thrown about violently. The ground was becoming very large very quickly. "We're going to crash!" she screamed out. Moments later, the small aircraft collided with the soft sand. Xarian had managed to pulled the nose up high enough that the craft only ploughed through the desert and not try and bury itself in the sands. The airlight dug about two feet into the sand and ran through it for several metres. Both occupants were thrown forwards violently. Xarian's head collided with the glass cover, cracking the thin glass into pieces.

Kagura too suffered head trauma. Once the plane stopped and she gathered herself she felt her heart beat in her head, an artery throbbing in pain. She could feel something wet running down her face, she touched the mystery liquid. It was sticky and warm on her fingers. Her vision was too blurred for her to even read, but she could still make out colour, and the liquid in her hand was deep red.

* * * * *

Tomo and Lisa sped back to the settlement. Both enjoying the throaty roar of the engines and the bouncy suspension. It had been a long time since Tomo had driven and never had she been in a place where the only person she could hurt was herself, but she would find a way to share the pain, she always did.

"Hey, Tomo!" Lisa shouted at her from her buggy. It was hard to hear her over the loud rumble of the engine, but Tomo could figure out what she meant. "I think there are some guys following us" she indicated behind her. Tomo looked back and saw the rising dust cloud and the riders making it. They were gaining on them rapidly.

"What do they want?" Tomo shouted back, making an exaggerated quizzical face to help get her point across. Lisa shrugged. The bikers were almost next to them now. The sound of both engines and the rushing wind mixed together to create an almost deafening sound. The bikers tailed the buggies, the dust flying up at them like thousands of tiny bullets.

The bikers pulled out pistols and aimed at the buggy. Lisa saw this immediately and swerved violently to the side, but the more agile bikers followed. They released a volley of bullets that pinged off the metallic frame and only narrowly missed the driver. A quad biker drove along side the buggy and took aim at the undefended driver. Lisa swerved, smashing her buggy into the quadbike. The quad was knocked onto two wheels, the driver accidentally pulling his trigger. He tried desperately to get his vehicle back on all fours before he was thrown off. He shifted his weight and aimed again. Lisa slammed her buggy into his quad again, this time the bike completely turned over, throwing the driver off and the quad smashing into the sand in a large dust cloud.

A motorbike drove along side Tomo's buggy, moving further away each time Tomo tried to smash into him. He aimed and fired a burst into her engine. A large black puff of smoke burst from her engine and blinded her. Small flickers of flame burst from the broken engine as more dark smoke stung her eyes and she struggled to keep an eye on where she was going. There was another burst of gun fire and Tomo lost control of the vehicle. The back wheels were shredded, as where the front. The buggy spun out of control, kicking up a large dust cloud that mixed with the black smoke.

The bikers following Lisa fired at her front wheel. The tire bust and Lisa swerved violently to try and keep control, but to no avail. The front of her buggy sunk into the sand, catapulting the back end. The front end was thrown back up and the buggy crashed into the soft sand, upside down. The mercenaries surrounded the two crashed buddies, dragging out their drivers. Lisa was bleeding badly from a head wound and Tomo was too dazed to put up any sort of resistance.

The leader of the bikers removed his helmet, wiping away the sweat that had developed on his face. He raised a walkietalkie to her mouth and spoke into it.

"We have acquired our targets, sir. Where do you want them?"

"Bring them back here. The boss wants them alive." came the reply. A third voice joined the conversation.

"We are approaching the settlement. Will radio in when we have captured all targets."

"Rodger. See you back at base."

The leader sat in the front seat of a 4x4 quickly approaching the settlement. Next him was the driver and behind him, in the bed was the machine gunner mounting the large calibre gun, ready to release armour piercing rounds. There were several other, similar, vehicles either side of him. All advancing in the same direction. Behind them was a large dust cloud, the dust hid the two APCs and their anti-vehicle guns. A dozen guns itching to let rip with their flying messengers of death, normally they would have opened fire as soon as they were within range, but the boss had ordered them to try and get as many prisoners as possible.

"Damn picky, choosy clientele." Captain Ceranis thought to himself. He could see the walls of his target, but not the thunderous melody of guns that should have accompanied the scene. The sky was dark with thunder clouds. Bolts of lightning shot down in the distance. The hair on the back on his neck was standing on end as he prepared for the assault. It wouldn't be as explosive or adrenaline pumping as some of the battlefields he had served on over the years, but he still got all tingly at the thought of going to war, no matter how brief or boring.

(A/N) That's chapter 11 down, 9 to go hopefully. Thanks for reading.


	12. Soldiers of Fortune

Soldiers of Fortune

Kagura was in agony, pain like she had never known before. She was sure she had cracked her head open. She had a severe headache, so overwhelmingly powerful she couldn't do anything but sit in place, clutching her head as if that would do any good. A hover car stopped nearby, several mercenaries disembarking and surrounding the crashed aircraft. One of them ripped off the door to the plane, throwing it aside. Inside was one woman clutching her head and groaning in pain, blood could be seen under her hand and dripping down her face. Next to her, a man was leaning forward, blood dripping from his head.

The strong merc pulled the woman out, she put up almost no resistance as he carried her away to the waiting hover car. He lay her down in the bed, a medic injected a sedative into her neck and the pain began to fade. The medic cleaned her wound, washing away the blood and examining the small rupture in the skin.

"How bad is it?" asked the leader of this group of mercenaries.

"Nothing serious, just a small cut and concussion. Nothing we can't fix." the medic replied as he sprayed on a faux skin to seal the wound. "What do we do with the guy?"

"We have to take him with us. Van Hoek, Daniels! Take care of the man!" he ordered. The large mercenary saluted and returned to the plane, ripping away the second door and and dragging the heavily bleeding freelancer away. They held him by the ankle, letting his body be dragged through the sand, leaving a long trail of little red dots in the pale yellow sand.

* * * * *

Ayumu was sitting on the top of the water tower. She was looking out over the desert, towards where the sky was clearing. The light blue contrasted sharply with the dark grey clouds that had dominated the sky. She could feel the cold wind blow past her, making her hair rustle. She could see a large dust cloud forming in the distance. It was too far away for her to see what was causing the dust storm, but she knew it wasn't good.

"Um … Zal!" she shouted down to the middle aged man.

"What's the matter!" he shouted back up.

"I think some more of those guys are coming!"

Zal looked slightly confused. He followed Ayumu up the ladder and looked out at the approaching storm. He squinted to get a better view. The implant in his eyes kicked in and his vision zoomed in considerably and turned a light shade of blue as the computer took over his sight. "Those aren't Tri-Systems guards." he thought aloud. He couldn't see the insignia on the side and couldn't identify the newcomers.

Alright. Ayumu, you and the others find somewhere to hide until I find out whose these guys are." Zal ordered. Ayumu did as she was told. She warned the others and found a hiding spot. She and Chiyo went back to the cellar they had hidden in on the first day, the water had sunken into the sand, washing some of it away, revealing a small hole at the back of the cellar that led to a smaller room, much to dark to see what was inside. The others waited in the house, keeping an eye on the window.

Zal and several other settlers met in the town square. Some were armed with old rifles, just in case things turned ugly. Zal didn't carry a firearm, he was a diplomat, not a fighter. One of the armed settlers stood atop the water tower, providing over watch for where the newcomers would meet Zal and his men. It was small group of ragtag miners against a well armed, well trained mercenary platoon.

* * * * *

Captain Ceranis was near the target now. He could see a small group of people awaiting his arrival.

"Sir, should we open fire?" his radio buzzed.

"Negative. Let's see what the locals want first. See if we can catch them off guard." he replied. The trucks drove up in front of the group and the teams disembarked. There was a middleaged man standing in front of the rest and Ceranis assumed this was the leader. He stepped forward.

"We have reason to believe you are hiding wanted fugitives." Ceranis spoke casually.

Zal was quiet for a second. "No. We had investigators around here already. They found nothing, why would be any different?" Zal challenged. Ceranis smiled.

"You know we are not official guardians of the law and cannot, lawfully, search your premises without your consent." Ceranis spoke, stepping closer to Zal until only a couple of feet separated them.

"Yes. I know the law. I do not give permission to investigate further." Zal stood defiant, not a hint of fear in his voice.

Ceranis placed his hands on his lower back. "Like I said; We are not offical guardians of the law. So we don't really give a crap about your consent...."

Yomi was watching from the house, peeking out of the window. Behind her was Sakaki and Kaori.

"What are they talking about?" Kaori whispered.

"I don't know. I think it's some mercenaries, but I can't hear what they're talking about." Yomi whispered back. She watched as the lead merc pulled a small, old fashioned gun from his back and fired two shots through Zal. Zal fell to the ground instantly. The other mercenaries aimed their weapons at the other settlers, who raised their hands and dropped their weapons. The settler on the water tower opened fire on them, but was quickly shot down by four red lasers.

"They just killed Zal!" Yomi said a little too loudly. Her voice caught the attention of the mercenaries. The leader waved his hand at the building Yomi and the others were staying in and three mercenaries approached, guns raised.

"We have to get out of here." Yomi said, getting to her feet and looking around for a way out. There were only two doors and the mercenaries were near both of them.

"There isn't a way out. We're trapped." Sakaki said, her normally soft voice was cracking.

"Then we fight." Kaori said, clutching Sakaki's hand firmly.

"What?!"

"I'm not risking loosing my Sakaki again, not without a fight." Kaorin spoke with determination.

Yomi thought for a second. "Alright, get into position. "Yomi ordered. Her old, Capatin's spirit returning to her.

The three mercenaries had the two exits covered. Kicking in the doors simultaneously and rushing in, quickly scanning the environment. Yomi kicked the back of the merc's legs, causing him to fall backward and hit the ground hard. He accidentally squeezed the trigger, sending a long, red laser through the roof of the building. Yomi stomped on his hand, pinning it to the ground. Behind her, the two other mercs rushed to aid their companion. Sakaki and Kaori pounced, grabbing them by their necks and attempting to hold them in a headlock.

Sakaki had the benefit of weight, but Kaori didn't. The merc she was holding threw himself onto his back, taking Kaori with him. He used her body to break his fall, smashing her between himself and the floor. The wind was knocked from Kaori's lungs and she released her grip. The merc jumped to his feet and bashed the butt of his gun into the back of Sakaki's head. Knocking her off his comrade. Sakaki took the hit hard and released the other merc. She kept her balance and didn't fall, she was dizzy and confused but still able to dodge the mercs second attack.

He threw a punch at her face, which she side stepped. She summoned a round house kick to his torso, but his bulk absorbed the blow. He grabbed her leg, holding it in place under his arm. He threw her leg upwards, pulling Sakaki off her other leg and sending her crashing to the ground. Her leg still still held by the merc. He pulled her towards him and he threw her into a wall. The collision knocked her out immediately, leaving her limp body next to the gasping Kaori.

Yomi was grabbed by the neck and pulled off the merc she had pinned down. She was thrown backwards, crashing into an old table which collapsed under her weight. Her back screamed in pain but she was given no time to comfort it. A fist collided with her exposed stomach, then another and finally a fist to the face. She could taste the warm, metallic tang of blood in her mouth. The punches had stopped and she cracked her eyes open. The mercenary she had pinned was standing over her, breathing heavily. He grabbed her and carried her out of the building. Yomi was in too much pain to carry on, she was taken to the town square where the others had been gathered.

* * * * *

Xarian was very warm, almost hot. Something was scratching his back, it was a warm and pleasant experience, like a thousand warm fingernails scratching away all blemishes and itches. His head was swimming in a warm goo, his senses dulled by the softness in his head. Xarian didn't know what was happening to him and he didn't really care. As long as he continued to experience this fuzzy warmth, nothing could be wrong in the galaxy. He could muffled voices beneath him. This confused him slightly, even in his dazed state this didn't make sense. He forced his brain to reboot.

He was being dragged across sand. His shirt had rolled up over his head, leaving his back bare to the sand. He could feel both his ankles were being held and the people dragging him were talking. Xarian couldn't work out how long he had been out, judging by the tired voices he guess he had been dragged for some time.

"Why do we have to drag this heavy S.O.B back to the base. Jake and Temiris get to carry the chick, we get the guy. I swear the boss has something against us, or al least me." said one of the voices.

"Quit your belly-aching. We're almost back." said the second voice.

Xarian opened his eyes a crack, pushing his shirt down so he could see. He saw the sand moving past his head, ahead of him were the backs of the two mercenaries. Somewhere, Kagura was being carried in the same direction. Her trip was much more pleasant, she was being carried gently by two other merc, not dragged over the sand. Xarian's vision began to blur again and he fell back into unconsciousness.

They were taken back to the base. Up to the top of the tower. They were placed at a dining table, on tall backed, stone chairs, invisible binds kept them firmly in place, unable to move their arms or legs. Before them was a collection of expensive cutlery. Gold plates and goblets. Bottles of red and white wine. The room was made from dark granite, the dark rock made the room fell smaller than it actually was. Behind the head of the table was a large window. The view was massive, stretching for hundreds of miles. The town could vaguely be seen in the distance and just above, a large thunderstorm approaching.

A few minutes later, Tomo and Lisa joined them in the dining room. Blood was clearly visible on their clothes. They were seated and then the guards left without a word. Leaving the four to themselves.

* * * * *

Ayumu and Chiyo lay on the cool sand, listening carefully for any sign that the intruders had left. All they could hear were their own heart beats and breaths. Above them, Yomi, Sakaki and Kaori waited. Two shots rung out, making both girls squeal in shock and grip each other tightly. They could footsteps on top of them as Yomi and the other two recoiled from the source of the noise.

"What do we do, Ayumu?" Chiyo whispered.

"I don't know, Chiyo. You're the genius, you think of something." Ayumu whispered back.

Chiyo couldn't think of a plan better than to stay put and see what happens. There were muffled voices coming from above them, then frantic footsteps. Chiyo and Ayumu couldn't figure out what was happening above them, there was aloud thud and some angry voices, there was buzzing sound, like laser being discharged. More loud thuds and muffled voices. The sound of someone crashing to the floor signalled the end of the fight above them. More voices spoke and the sound of someone being dragged away came down to the hiding girls. Then all was silent again.

"I think Yomi and Captain Sakaki got caught." said Ayumu, "Captain Sakaki's friend as well."

"I think so too, Ayumu."

"Chiyo, I'm scared."

"Me too." Chiyo comforted her friend, holding her tighter.

* * * * *

Yomi, Sakaki and Kaori stood in the centre of the town. Held by the mercenaries they had fought. The body of Zal still lay where he had fallen. The other settlers were standing in front of a firing line, their hands on their heads. The man who had shot Zal stood in front of Yomi, looking her in the eye.

"Captain Koyomi Mizuhara, I presume."

"Well you have the advantage." Yomi replied, trying fill her voice with authority and not give the man the impression she was weak.

"My name is Captain Isaiah Ceranis, of the Mercenary Alliance." Ceranis introduced himself with a bow.

"So you're working for Tri-Systems?" Yomi asked, she knew the information would mostly useless if she was going to be killed by these guns for hire. Ceranis didn't reply to her question. He waved his hand and the women were taken to the waiting vehicles and strapped in tightly. Ceranis turned his attention to the captured settlers.

"Run." he spoke quietly, the settlers didn't understand him at first, exchanging confused glances.

"Run." he repeated, loudly and firmly.

The settlers began moving, then broke out into a run, they had only gotten a few metres when the mercenaries opened fire. Several red lines cut through the air, sizzling through the clothes and flesh of the fleeing miners. They all fell within seconds, spread out around the town square, their blood was soaked up by the drying sand. A vague sizzling sound could be heard as the wounds continued to burn from the lasers.

Sakaki looked away as the settlers were gunned down. Yomi couldn't look away, as much as she wanted to. Her attention was clasped on the massacre before her eyes. She finally broke away her gaze, closing her eyes tightly and retreating back into her own mind, a familiar place to her by now. But a sudden realisation pulled her back into reality.

"They don't know about Chiyo and Ayumu." she thought. Her pulse quickening. If Chiyo and Ayumu could somehow get help, Yomi might just be able to escape capture one again.

"Search the rest of the settlement" Ceranis ordered, his mercenaries split up and looked through the town. "We're looking for two women, kill everyone else you find."

Yomi began hoping desperately that Ayumu and Chiyo had found a good hiding place. The town was silent as the mercs searched. The quiet buzz and sizzle of a laser shot reached Yomi's ears. Her heart beat jumped, hoping it was some other poor bastard and not her only chance of escaping.

A mercenary was walking around Zal's house. He saw some footsteps in the damp earth leading to a hatch. He approached the hatch, his gun raised.

Ayumu could hear the mercenary stepping closer. She shuffled back as far as she could go. This time, they weren't hidden by the dark, if the merc opened the hatch they would be seen. Chiyo was beginning to panic, they were trapped like rats. As Ayumu moved backwards, her leg found the hole in the wall. An idea struck her, if she was fast enough, she and Chiyo could slid into the adjoining room and be out of sight. Ayumu quickly entered the room, legs first.

The room was a lot larger than she had thought. There was room to stand up and could fit a few people comfortably. The floor was covered in a few inches of sand, but felt solid underneath. It was also very cool in the dark room, Ayumu's hair stood on end as she fell into the darkness. Chiyo joined her soon after, both hid the corner, holding their breathes in fear that the merc had super sensitive hearing and would pick up even the faintest of noises.

The mercenary kicked the hatch open, looking into the darkened cellar flooded with sand. He saw the disturbed sand. Smiling to himself, he removed a krak grenade from his belt. He clicked the ignition and chucked it into the pit. He ran back to the square before the grenade went off.

The krak grenade detonated. The hatch was blow away and most of the cellar was badly damaged, The fireball scorched the side of the house and flowed into Ayumu's and Chiyo hiding room. The flames licked across the ceiling, ripping the breath from the two girls' lungs. The heat filled the room like an oven. When all the oxygen was consumed, the flame was sucked out and died. Ayumu and Chiyo gasped for air, waiting desperately for the room to refill.

Chiyo sucked in the hot air. It burnt her chest, but she needed the oxygen dearly. Smoke began to fill the small room. Both of them covered their noses and mouths with their shirts and kept as low as possible to avoid smoke inhalation. They could hear a groaning from above them. The building was struggling to stay upright, dust fell through the smoke, onto the girls as a large crack cut through the scorched ceiling.

* * * * *

The Krak grenade throwing merc rejoined his fellows in the town square.

"What was that?!" demanded Captain Ceranis.

"There were some people in the cellar of a building back there, so I chucked a krak grenade." the merc replied casually.

"What if it was the two we were looking for!?" Ceranis grabbed the merc by the collar, pulling him close.

"Sorry, sir. But does it matter that much? We could just say that they tried to run and we didn't have a choice. It's her we're here for anyway" the merc looked at Yomi. Ceranis dropped him.

"Fine. But don't do it again. It could cost us lot of money one day and if it does, I'll see your head on a pike." Ceranis warned, his voice was serious and the merc was getting the full blast of his threat.

Sakaki's heart was cut in twine. Her two crew mates had been blow up by a krak grenade. Blown to atoms or incinerated. Sakaki felt like someone had stabbed a white hot needle into her heart. Yomi felt it too. Two young, promising women, cut down before their lives had truly taken off. Yomi had only known them for a few weeks, but she had grown fond of the two sweetest crewmen she had ever had the luck to meet.

"Why is it every time I feel hope, something comes along and kills it. I shouldn't hope anymore, it only brings suffering to others." Yomi thought, she had been through several soul crushing experiences lately, but this was the last one, it was too much for her to take. She let her head hang low and slip into a mental blank.

Sakaki was crying. Kaori was trying to comfort her, but with her hands tied behind he back, all she could manage was to rub her head against her lovers shoulder and utter a few gentle words. All of this went unnoticed by the mercenaries only a few feet away.

The final few mercs returned to the group.

"Did you find anyone?" their captain asked.

"One old guy. Taken care of. Other than that..." The merc shook his head.

"Alright then. Everyone, pile in. Let's finish this job.

The mercenaries got into their vehicles and back up, past the waiting APCs. Captain Ceranis gave the order and the three guns let rip with their messengers of destruction. The noise was catastrophic and could be felt in the frame of the cars as well as heard. Thousands of large calibre rounds tore through the shoddy building materials of the town. Frames were ripped apart and the structures collapsed. The water tower's legs were shot out and the tower leaned over the house that had once belonged to Zal. The weight of the water it held finished the job, pulling it down to the ground. A ton of water smashed through the roof of the home, tearing it all down. The container burst and a flood of water washed through the home, knocking down whatever wall dared to still be standing. The flood water washed through the town, washing over the corpses of the miners. Anything light was taken with the water, dropped some distance off when the ever thirsty earth consumed the water.

In their hiding spot, beneath the house of Zal, Chiyo and Ayumu waited for a sign that the coast was clear. What they got was the sound of screeching metal and cataclysmic noise. Both covered their ears as tightly as they could, but the boom was punching through them like a pneumatic drill to the stomach. They both let out a scream to try and relieve the pressure building up inside them, but it was drowned out by the sound of metal buckling. There was tremendous crash and it felt like the universe had gone blue-shift and the Big Crunch was happening.

The cracked ceiling above the two crew-mates collapsed on them. Along with a torrent of water that quickly flooded the small space. They were pushed down by the collapsing house and held there by the wave after wave of water. Ayumu was struck over the head by a falling brick, she fell to the floor, pinned under a large slab of concrete, the water level rising above her mouth. The world went black.

Ceranis watched at the small buildings collapsed into a large dust cloud. Nothing could improve his mood faster than raising a town to the ground. Finally the guns went silent, a sizzling sound could be heard as small drops of rain hit the hot barrels. Ceranis looked up. The sky was dark with a storm, a bolt of lightning fired in the distance. He fell back into his seat and ordered a return to the base ASAP.

The three prisoners sat in silence. Too hurt to say anything. Sakaki was taking it hardest, she had just heard two of her closest friends die in an explosion. Killed by a krak grenade.

"At least it was quick." Sakaki thought, it was all she could think of lessen the pain.

* * * * *

The trip was short, but felt like hours. They arrived at the base and were escorted up to the top of the tower. They were taken into a room with a long table and several tall chairs. Xarian, Kagura, Tomo and Lisa were sitting in the chairs, they looking uncomfortably rigid as they sat. Yomi, Sakaki and Kaori were sat in the chairs and were held in place by an unseen force. In front them were golden plates and cutlery. Bottles of wine sat unopened, as did large plates of food.

"What's happening?" Yomi asked after a brief silence.

"We got shot down" Kagura said, sounding almost embarrassed about it.

"They made us crash." Tomo spoke up, her voice was bitter. "Where are Chiyo and Ayumu?"

Sakaki looked down at her lap, trying to hold back more tears.

Yomi spoke up, "We don't know. They didn't find them, but they levelled the town and we don't know if they survived." Yomi spoke slowly.

"What did they do to my ship?" Xarian asked, rising as far out of his seat as possible, which was only a few centimetres.

"We didn't see. They shot the town apart but I think they left your ship alone." Sakaki said, trying to drag her mind away from the tragic fate of her old crew mates.

"What about the others in the town?" Xarian asked. He was met with silence, but the look Yomi gave him said it all. Xarian's head fell, muttering something under his breath.

The doors to the dining room opened and a tall man with a sharp suit walked in, seating himself at the head of the long table. Tomo was the first to start with the questions.

"Who the hell are you?!" she demanded, straining against her binds.

The man ignored her question for a few seconds until he was comfortably seated.

"My name is Artemis Westshore. I am an executive of Tri-Systems International. I am also the head of the Rebirth Project." he said, his voice was controlled, but still let some personality through.

"What's Project Rebirth?" Kaori asked, beating Tomo to the punch.

"You may or may not already know, but you are all involved in it. Especially you, Captain Mizuhara. You were vital to our success, but you proved far more tenacious than we had expected." The man poured himself a goblet of red wine.

"What did you do to my ship!?" Yomi asked through gritted teeth.

Mr. Westshore took a sip of his drink and placed the goblet down on the table before answering her question.

"We needed to remove the CS – 3 Station from it's orbit before we could begin work on Phase 2. We began planning Phase 1 about a year before the attack happened, creating the virus to attack your ship, gathering the required intelligence to get past all the defences and of course to get the DNA of one of your officers. After the incident, all we needed you to do was keep the attention of the world away from our little operation. You played that role only too well. By running, you dragged away all authorities in a hunt, leaving us free to do our deals." The man looked like he was suppressing a grin.

"The public's call for blood was good for us too. It meant that your trial would be short and brutal. Then the wonderful Tri-systems would rise up and rebuild the CS system, they would love us to the point of being blind to what we were really up to. We thought Phase Two was completed when you were captured, but no." Westshore turned his gaze to Xarian and Kagura. "Your friends had to break you out, making Phase Three dangerously unstable. When you landed right next to us a few days ago, I thought it was too good to be true, but here you now sit. Although I notice two of you are missing."

He pressed a button on the table and in walked Captain Ceranis.

"Captain. I notice two of our guests are not present. Care to explain?"

"They were in the town when we levelled it, sir. It is unlikely that they survived." Ceranis explained. Ceranis looked at Xarian and Xarian returned the look.

Xarian dipped his head slightly in greeting, "Ceranis."

"Darkport." Ceranis returned the small nod.

"Very well. You are dismissed, Captain." Westshore dismissed the mercenary captain. Tapping some buttons on the table again, a hologram projected itself in front of him. It was pictures of the seven women. He tapped Ayumu's picture and the hologram changed to a brief description and biography.

"Ayumu Kasuga. Engineer." Westshore read over her details, then swapped to Chiyo's. "Too bad. Such young people had to die." The exec said, his voice lacked all compassion.

"Says the man who ordered the death of thousands." Sakaki spat out. Westshore ignored her.

"What are you going to do now? Kill us?" Tomo asked, still fighting her restraints to no avail.

"Not right this moment. We might need you in the near future, we'll just see how things play out." he took another sip of his wine.

"Why would you blow up a station?" Kaori asked, she knew it was pointless to know if they could never tell others about it, but she reasoned that the longer she kept him talking, the further away their death would be.

"We wanted to build a new one. A better one. The corporation that builds the station gets to control the destiny of the planet it orbits. We can influence and shape the planet to meet out needs, make the people think the way we want them to."

"What does that ice world have that you want?" Kaori asked. The exec smiled at her.

"You don't need to know that." He stood up and left. Leaving the group behind.

The guards entered the room and injected a sedative into the necks of all of them. One by one they fell into a chemical induced sleep to be escorted down to the deeps of the base. When they awoke they were locked in different cells. The cells seemed more like ancient dungeons than modern prisons. The walls were made of large stone bricks and the door was a rusty iron gate. There was almost no light, just a dim glow from the hallway spilling into the cells.

* * * * *

Captain Van der Brook looked over the report for the fifth time that day. He had hardly believed what was before him when the report came through that the Fury 161 prisoner transport ship had been raided. The news brought two conflicting emotions to the mind of the old Captain; Amusement and worry. He allowed a chuckle to escape. Captain Mizuhara was defiantly one of the most tenacious people he had met, but this raised fears as to why she continued to run. A lesser person would have rolled over and accepted their fate, but not Koyomi.

Van der Brook was impressed not only by her tenacity, but with the skills of her companions too. Few people had a warp scrambler and even fewer can use one correctly, but to pull out only one ship out of a formation required a hell of a lot of skills and a hell of a lot of luck. According to the report, a soldier then jumped from the attacking ship in a Walker suit and cut his way through the hull. Van der Brook had been around a long time and seen every manoeuvre in space combat known. But this particular tactic was highly unorthodox, it was well known in certain circles, but only used by one group of soldiers. The Mercenary Alliance. Many had tried to emulate the move, but none had succeeded, whoever wasn't killed in the first jump, usually died on board the ship they were hijacking.

The timing and skill needed to survive was far above most criminals. Van der Brook had heard tales of ships being ripped apart by dozens of Walkers running across the hull, but never had he heard of it being used like it was in the report.

"How could a Captain, with all her assets and the assets of her companions frozen, afford to hire an extremely expensive band of mercs?" he thought. "They don't even offer their services to individuals, only organisations."

He checked his computer. The M.A information site said they were currently deployed on a remote Dust planet on a security mission. Any that weren't deployed were garrisoned at their main base. Van der Brook leaned back in his chair, rubbing his tired eyes. He was waiting for the Federation to order him on another manhunt to another dark corner of space were Koyomi had supposedly been sighted. Hundreds of these sightings had been flooding in all day, most were dismissed immediately, but a few had been properly investigated. Sending out a few ships across known space. Sooner or later, he would sent out to investigate one of these sightings, but he knew that Captain Mizuhara wouldn't be that easy to catch. They had gotten lucky the first time and it was unlikely to happen again.

His ship was in orbit around the remains of the CS – 3 station. Most of the debris had been cleared away, leaving only the main structure still in orbit. The massive cavity left by the explosion gapped open like a mouth full of gnarled teeth. A squadron of fighters whipped past his ship, they were painted in their corporate colours of Ivory white and pale yellow. The Tri-Systems Inc. symbol clearly defined on their wings. Many more Tri-Systems ships were flying around the station, some were ripping it apart, others hauling it away. The Station was too badly damaged to be saved. So it was being butchered to help create the one that would take it's place.

Van der Brook would have been impressed by the the speed in which the corporation had arrived and begun their job, were it not for Yomi's accusation that they were responsible for the attack. Tri-Systems had arrived with all the needed materials and equipment surprisingly fast, which only made him more suspicious. They seemed a little too organised to have just dragged the deconstruction crew together. He removed the thought from his mind, he was trying to hard to believe in the innocence of Koyomi that he was beginning to see things that weren't really there.

He sat down and poured himself a stiff drink. Only a few years left until retirement, no need to ruin an immaculate service record. "Just do your job for a little longer then you can relax. Far away from all this" he reminded himself. As much as he tried to convince himself relax and enjoy the simple assignment, he couldn't get rid of the nagging sensation in the back of his mind. He had wanted Koyomi as his apprentice of sorts, someone to pass on his experience.

Him and his wife had lost their only child many years back. A tragic accident at the pilot training Academy. He had come to see Koyomi as his hope for a legacy, someone to carry on where had left off. It was hard to enjoy oneself when he knew that after his passing, his linage would end. He finished his drink quickly. There was a nagging in the back of his mind telling him to look closely at the Dust planet. It was better than sitting around drinking all day. He got on the radio at told his pilots to make speed for Dust 223. He had a feeling he would answers there.

(A/N) Sorry for the delay, I've been having a lot of trouble with chapter 14 and I don't like releasing chapters without being at least three chapters ahead. But I didn't want to keep you waiting forever (Like with my other stories, for which I truly apologise.) Collage has drained all my creativity and free time so I can't work like I used to. But enough excuses. I hope you enjoyed the update, R&R please.


	13. Second Escape

Second Escape

(A/N) Thanks for waiting guys, sorry this took forever to come out but college is a real drain on my creativity. Seriously, I couldn't write even if I was being paid to. Also, I apologise for any spelling and grammar mistakes in this and there will be a lot. If anyone wants to be a editor for me, feel free to ask, I'd be happy to consider anyone as long as they can prove themselves as a decent writer. Just message me or ask in the review. On with the story ...

Yomi groggily got to her feet. Her head was still spinning from the sedative. She was actually quite enjoying the dizziness and blurred vision. It was like being drunk, a sensation Yomi didn't experience that often. The effects were already wearing off, dragging Yomi back to reality. She examined her surroundings, it was like a medieval dungeon, except for the spear wielding guard next the iron gate.

She looked through the iron bars of the door, the hallway was empty. Across from her was another iron gate to another cell. She could see some movement, but it was too dark to tell what it was. The figure came into the light as it approached the gate. It was Tomo. She leaned against the gate and looked across at Yomi, she still looked heavily dosed.

"Yomi? Where the hell am I?" Tomo asked. Her words were slurred and slow.

"I think we're in a dungeon. Where is everyone else?" Yomi replied, trying to stick her head between the bars to look down the hallway, but they were too close together to get through.

"A dungeon? Aaargh, my head hurts." Tomo gripped her head as a sudden burst of pain shot through her brain, sitting down next to the gate.

"We're here." A voice shouted out. It was Kagura's. She was in the cell next to Yomi.

Yomi could just see her arms coming out from between the bars of the gate. She could also see another cell gate opposite Kagura's. Inside was either Lisa or Xarian.

"Kagura! Can you see any more cells?" Yomi asked.

"No. There's one more opposite me and then it's a wall. Any more on your side?" Kagura replied.

"Nope. I see a wall too, I think" Yomi shouted back.

A grunt came from the forth cell. Someone stood up and looked through the bars. It was Lisa. She looked really rough, some dry blood stained her clothes.

"Lisa! Is Xarian in there with you?" Kagura asked, some concern in her voice.

It took Lisa a few seconds to process the question and gather an answer. "No. Why? Isn't he in one of the other cells?" she replied, looking around.

"It's just the four of us in here. Where do you think they took him. Wait, is Sakaki with any of you?" Yomi asked, realising they had lost two more of their party, "Kaori?"

"Maybe they're torturing them for information." Tomo suggested, her voice more lively as the sedative quickly wore off.

"Don't say that, Tomo. I think Xarian knew that Captain guy, so maybe they're talking." Kagura said, trying to see Tomo better.

"Relax, Kagura. I'm sure your boyfriend is fine." Tomo said, standing up and shaking away the last affects of the drug.

"He's not my boyfriend!" Kagura shouted at Tomo, frustrated that she couldn't reach out and hurt Tomo. "And what about Sakaki and Kaori? Where are they?"

"Quiet. Both of you. We need to find a way out this." Lisa spoke, silencing both of them. All four retreated back into their cells to think.

Xarian awoke. He was alone in a dark room. He was strapped into a chair, tied down tightly. His head was spinning and Xarian feared that he would fall from his chair unless he remained perfectly still, which he did. He could hear some heavy footsteps behind him and he turned his head to hear more clearly.

"I think he's awake." a voice said, the voice was familiar but hadn't been heard in a long time.

Several more footsteps sounded and soon Xarian was surrounded by a small group of mercenaries. Captain Ceranis stood in front of him, looking down on the dizzy merc. Xarian looked up, he could only see Ceranis, the others were only silhouettes against the bright light that was shining into Xarian's eyes.

"Your beard's grown since we last spoke." said one of the silhouettes. Xarian ran through his memory quickly, trying to remember that voice. The light that was blinding him was extinguished and Xarian looked upon the faces of his captors.

Xarian smiled and greeted his old comrades. "Well, well. I thought I'd never see you bastards again." he said. The others laughed, except for Captain Ceranis.

One of the mercs came into the light. Xarian recognised him immediately. His old wingman: Frik.

"Hey, Frik. Still hanging out with these losers?" Xarian asked his smiling friend, the only black man in the small group.

"Beats suicide." he replied flatly.

Ceranis raised his hand and Frik quieted down.

"When did you become a ground pounder?" he asked.

"I'm on a job. So are you, apparently. I thought we didn't work with criminal organisations, when did that change?" Xarian asked.

"We? Who's we? You weren't the most loyal soldier in the corp if I remember correctly. Forsaking you comrades, for what? If you wanted money, you could have stayed with us. Wander lust? Independence?" Ceranis spoke sharply.

Xarian was quiet for a second. "You know why I left. When I joined up we worked under strict rules. A code of honour. Where the hell did that go? Four years and we descend down to petty thugs, working for anyone who'll pay us."

The other mercenaries looked down at their feet. Xarian was speaking the truth, but none of them wanted to admit it. Ceranis kept his gaze strong.

"Be quiet, Xarian." He said calmly. Xarian sighed and turned his head away. "We have a job to do here. I'm afraid that involves keeping you imprisoned here until the suit upstairs does what he wants with you."

Ceranis stepped away and pressed a button on the dark wall. A section of the wall slid away and light flooded through. Ceranis and all but one of the mercenaries left through the doorway.

"Xamzar." he said. Xarian laughed a little at his old nick-name.

"What do you want, Frik?" he asked, looking up to his old friend.

"I'll see you later." Frik said, the turned and left through the same doorway as the others, leaving Xarian alone and confused. The doorway slid shut, darkening the room once more. Only the light from the lamp hanging overhead illuminated Xarian.

Xarian looked around. From what he could see, the room was empty. Only him and the chair he was tired to. Straining against his binds did nothing to help. The chair was too heavy to lift. He couldn't see the knots used to keep him tied down and thus couldn't try to undo them. There seemed like no way out of the predicament. Not without someone to help him. He sat there, bored out of his mind, trying to find something to occupy the time.

Sakaki was holding Kaori closely, shielding the smaller woman from Westshore. Both had been stripped down to their underwear while knocked out. A rope tied around their ankles connected to a column. There was no knot on the rope and it seemed to meld into one, tightly around their ankle. Westshore was standing in a corner, watching them, a wicked look in his eyes.

"What do you want?!" Sakaki demanded. Westshore's smile stayed in place.

"I am a very powerful man." He stood up and walked around the couple. "Being so powerful, people tend to give me what I want, when I want it. This sounds good, right?" He walked across the carpet that Sakaki and Kaori were kneeling on, over to a chair and sat down, crossing his legs. "The problem with this; is that I get bored. There is nothing I can't have. If I want something to eat, I get the finest foods available. A drink; hundred year old brady, whiskey, you name it. I could offer you more money than you could ever dream of in you wildest fantasies. But I can't have you, can I?"

"No!" Sakaki replied quickly and sharply.

An evil grin spread across Westshore's face. "That's what I want." he pulled out a gun and took aim. Kaori screamed as she saw the gun be pointed at her. Sakaki pulled her close and got herself between the gun and her companion.

Westshore fired a single round.

Chiyo was warm, like she had a big fluffy blanket wrapped around her. She was surrounded by light and flouting through the void. She was filled with an inexplicable sense of bliss. Her mind was foggy, but she didn't care. She was only too happy to stay like this forever. But there was some small thing at the back of her mind that was cutting through her blissful state, like a cancerous spot on milky white skin.

"How did I get here?" She thought, her thoughts echoed around her. "Where was I before this?" Her head was beginning to hurt as she thought more.

She knew something was wrong, but couldn't figure out what. She searched her memories, she could remember her childhood, working with Sakaki and Ayumu, picking up Yomi and Tomo, being attacked by Kagura, finding Vek, or was it Xarian? It was all a blur to her, but the more she focused, the clearer it became. They were attacked by some mercenaries, a krak grenade, then what?

The warmth around her suddenly vanished. The blissful blur of her mind was replaced by a painful clarity. She was wet and cold. Her legs were in pain, her lungs were full of water. Her eyes shot open. Her eyes were under water, it stung her as she opened her eyelids. She couldn't breath. She pushed her self up, getting her head just above the water line. She tried to inhale, but her lungs refused to cooperate. Instead of taking in the vital oxygen, they contracted powerfully and threw the water out. Little Chiyo coughed up the water that had filled her lungs, her head ached as her brain begged for oxygen. Finally her lungs where emptied. She inhaled deeply filling herself with air. Panting, she coughed a few more times.

Looking around, she could hardly see a thing. She was laying on her stomach in about a foot of water. Both her legs were trapped under a large slab of concrete. Another slab had fallen and separated the room the two had been hiding in. There was a single ray of light shining through the collapsed roof, but Chiyo couldn't see any way out. She looked around, there was no sign of her friend.

"Ayumu!" she called out. Her voice was croaky and painful.

She broke into another coughing fit. There was no reply. She called out again and was met with silence once more. She tried to free her legs from the slab that was pinning her down. One leg came free, but the other would only slide a few inches out, before something snagged it. No mater what angle she tried, her foot remained hooked onto something. She could vaguely see a dark substance leaking out of a cut in her upper leg, she didn't need any light to tell her that it was blood. She turned onto her back and used her elbows to keep her head above the water.

She tried to find out what was keeping her feet trapped under the slab, reaching under the slab, she fumbled for whatever was keeping her trapped. Following her leg under the slab, she felt a metal pole that split into two points at the bottom, like a two pronged fork, had pinned her ankle to the ground. She tugged on the pole, but it didn't budge. It was being held down by something heavy. She tried to kick the pole away with her free foot, but couldn't turn her body to allow this. She was well and truly stuck.

"Ayumu!" she cried out again, hoping that her friend might still be alive and able to help her. "Come on, Ayumu. If you're alive can you give me some sort of sign!"

Silence.

Tears began to well up in the eyes of the young women. She was stuck under a ton of concrete, her best friend was probably crushed and everyone on the surface was dead. Chiyo sobbed silently, knowing that her cries would do nothing to help her. Laying in the water, the ray of light shining on her stomach, she released herself to sleep. A strange sense of futility over came her; in a way it was liberating. She accepted her fate and that made her somehow more ready to take the next step, but when that happened wasn't up to her.

Tomo had resorted to gently tapping her head against the wall to try getting the creative juices flowing, but all four inmates had hit a brick wall, literally and figuratively. There was a grinding noise that captured their attention. All four jumped to their feet and looked through the bars at what was making the noise. At the end of the short hallway, the wall was grinding open. Out stepped Captain Ceranis, accompanied but several mercenaries. They walked past the four cells without looking at the prisoners. Tomo watched as they walked past without a word. A second door opened on the other side of the hallway and the mercenaries disappeared through it. A few seconds later another merc walked swiftly past.

"So there is a way out of here. We just need to get through these bars" Yomi said, shaking the cell bars, hoping that they would simply fall off.

"That's one step in the right direction. But how do we get through these bars?" Lisa said, examining the rusty bars for some weakness. Kicking it hard several times did nothing to weaken it.

Eventually the inmates returned to their thoughts, trying to figure out some way to get through.

Sakaki was lying on her back, clutching her upper arm tightly. Blood was leaking from a long gash made by the bullet skimming across her soft skin. It burned like hell and tears were forming in her eyes. Kaori knelled next to her, holding her tightly and examining the wound. It was only a flesh wound, but Kaori was still terrified for her companion.

Westshore was smiling as he watched the small woman try to comfort her lover. Westshore had deliberately hurt Sakaki to remove her as a threat and to get Kaori in line. He walked over to the sobbing Kaori and pushed her away. She got to her feet and was about to jump on Westshore when he pointed his gun at her. She froze in place. He stepped closer, the same wicked smile across his face. Sakaki propped herself up on the pillar she was tied to, still clutching her arm. Blood was clear on her hand and a little was dripping down her arm. She watched as Westshore continued to point his gun at her companion.

All three were silent for a second. Sakaki was too scared to saw anything, as was Kaori. Finally, Westshore broke the silence. Lowering his gun a few inches.

"You're gonna do want I tell you." he ordered. "Or your little girlfriend will suffer. Understood?"

Kaori was quiet. Looking between Westshore and Sakaki. "What do you want?" she asked, suppressing a sneer.

"I want ..." Westshore leaned against a pillar opposite Sakaki, his gun still raised, aiming closer to Kaori's middle. "You." His gaze stayed on Kaori.

"What?" Kaori looked down at Sakaki, exchanging confused glances. "Why me?" Kaori was hoping to stall him long enough for Sakaki to think of a plan, but wasn't sure how long she could keep him at bay.

"Because you hate me. If I didn't have this gun, you wouldn't let me anywhere near you. Because I can choose to kill you or worse; Your girlfriend, you have to obey me and do as I say. Whether you like it or not." Westshore was clearly enjoying every second of this. "But not like the drones that work for me, as far as you are concerned; I own you."

"You don't own anyone." Sakaki said, her voice was filled with pain. Westshore's eyes moved over to the bloody woman leaning against the pillar.

He chuckled. "I own you. Look around, no one is going to help you here. Your friends are locked up a kilometre underground. The Federation just want to throw you onto that rock, at least here you can live in luxury. Like the ancient kings, concubines beside the throne."

Kaori backed away, Westshore's superiority complex was making itself very well known and unfortunately for the two women, his words were the truth. The only people who knew where they were, where locked in a dungeon deep beneath the base and the only other people who gave a crap about where they were only wanted to dump them on the closest thing to hell in the material universe. Kaori and Sakaki's options were limited to say the least. Either give to the perverted whims of the executive or die. Kaori faced a particularly tough decision, she could surrender herself to Westshore's desires, or watch him torture her precious Sakaki with no guarantee of an end. She couldn't stand the idea of Westshore having his hands on her or Sakaki, but the thought of him killing the love of her life was worse.

Kaori closed her eyes and held her arms out slightly to show she surrounded to him. Sakaki watched on in disgust as Westshore stepped forward. The gun lowered to his side as moved within touching range of Kaori. He reached out, his hand was shaking with anticipation. Kaori's skin crawled as his fingers brushed across her cheek, moving down her neck and over her shoulder. She had a sudden flash back to her school days, the perverted teacher who followed her around and made her high school days nearly unbearable, had it not been for the majestic Sakaki; Kaori's ray of sunshine in those stormy days.

But the days had never been darker than this moment right now. His hand moved across her shoulder, sliding the strap to the side. Sakaki looked away, she couldn't stand to see the smaller girl suffer so much. Kaori let out a small whimper as the strap fell away. The small cry only seemed to encourage the exec who continued to move his hand across Kaori's smooth skin. The door to the small room opened and the stern woman stepped in. Westshore's hand shot off of Kaori's body as he turned to see who had interrupted him.

The stern woman's expression didn't change, as if she was used to walking in on him in situations such as these.

"What do you want?" Westshore demanded, taking a step back and avoiding eye contact.

"The board wants a situation update, sir." she said.

Westshore took a deep breath and followed the woman out, shutting the door behind them. Kaori fell next to Sakaki, taking her in a tight embrace. She sobbed onto her shoulder and Sakaki returned the embrace.

"It's okay, Kaorin. We'll get out this, somehow." Sakaki reassured Kaori.

Westshore sat in the empty conference room. The room was dark, the large screen at the far end of the granite table was the only source of light. On the screen was a similar table, except every seat was occupied. All faces turned to Westshore and the stern woman who stood at his side.

"Good afternoon members of the board." Westshore greeted. "I trust all is going as planned with Station CS?"

The man at the far end of the table on screen spoke first. He was an old, overweight man. His face was pink and shiny with sweat. He wore a dark blue suit that seemed much too tight for him and the neck tie was strangling him. "Mr. Westshore, the construction is going perfectly. How are the prisoners?"

"They are in excellent condition, sir. Unfortunately, two were lost in the capture, no one important. But all others are accounted for; including the mystery assistant from the hijacking."

"Good. I trust to take care of them?" asked the fat man.

"Indeed you can, sir." Westshore smiled inside. There was a beeping coming the stern woman's pocket. She pulled out a phone and swiftly left the room.

"Our sources tell us the Federation have no clue as to the location of your prisoners and the hunt for Captain Mizuhara has distracted them from investigating the attack much further. I believe we are in the clear." one of the other execs said.

"Well done, Mr. Westshore. Your plan has worked perfectly. You will be richly rewarded for what you have given this company. I look forward to seeing you on the new station in a few years." the fat man said.

"As do I, sir." Westshore smiled. "As do I." With that, the screen flickered and died. The lights in the conference room lit up. Westshore got to his feet and walked out.

"Sir, a Mythology Class Federation ship just warped into the system. It will be in orbit in approximately two hours." she said.

"A Fed ship? What the hell do they want? The Feds were supposed to be ignorant about all this. Dammit, okay, keep me posted on what it's doing.

The _Bolt of Zeus _dropped from warp and began it's short journey to the planet of Dust 223. The ship was running on a skeleton staff of only a few dozen. This meant it's offensive capabilities were almost nil, but it's shields would still take a lot of power to get through. The ship cut through the darkness quickly, leaving behind a thin blue trail from each of it's five engines. The Captain sat in his Captain's seat. In front of him was his support staff and two pilots.

Van der Brook still had no real plan of action at this point. His idea was to commune with the local government about any recent ship activity. It was a vague plan and he knew it but he was hoping that the mercenaries stationed there might be able to shed some light on who the attacker was. They might be able to push him in the right direction. He sent a call ahead of his arrival, just a warning that there was going to be a capital ship in orbit around the planet. It was procedure, but only really necessary on advanced moon colonies where the ship could have an effect on the tides.

Chiyo's survival instinct had overridden her attempt to accept fate. Her foot was still stuck under the slab of concrete. She reached under and managed to take her shoe off, her ankle was still was stuck but now she could remove it, bit by bit. Every centimetre hurt as she squeezed her foot out from under the slab. She could feel her skin being torn as she pulled it through. Finally, her ankle was free, the rest of her foot came through easily. Her ankle was cut to shreds, blood coming through the pink skin where it been pulled away. She stood up on shaky legs, putting as little pressure on her injured foot as possible.

She looked up at the debris that stood between her and freedom. There was a ray of light coming through a small hole; if Chiyo could reach that gap, she might be able to crawl through and escape her cage. The concrete wall was short enough for Chiyo to jump and grab the top. From there she grab a wooden beam that crossed the small room and have an easy way through the gap in the collapsed ceiling. She jumped up, her legs were weaker than she thought and she only just grabbed the edge of wall. Summoning all her strength, she pulled her self up. She could now see what was on the other side of the wall. It was a room like the one Chiyo had just escaped, it was flooded too. Lying in the water, with half her face in the under the water line, was Ayumu. As Chiyo climbed over she knocked over a brick, it splashed into the water sending ripples across the pond that Ayumu lay in. Her body moved with the water, no sign of life in her limp body.

Chiyo crawled over the top and dropped down, careful not to fall on her friend. As she hit the ground, her weak ankle gave way and collapsed, falling down next to friend. Still no reaction. Chiyo cried out in pain, clutching her ankle. Overcoming the pain, Chiyo turned her attention to her friend, pulling her friend out of the water and resting her head in Chiyo's lap. Ayumu's skin was pale and clammy.

"Come on, Ayumu. Wake up" Chiyo pleaded, tapping her friend's cheeks, trying to wake her from her deathly sleep. Chiyo checked the engineer's pulse. She couldn't find it. Tears welled up in her eyes. The situation looked grim. Pushing her fingers harder into Ayumu's neck, Chiyo found her pulse. The relief Chiyo felt could not be described. The tears of fear and pain that had formed in her eyes turned into tears of joy. But she wasn't out of the woods yet. Ayumu wasn't breathing and if Chiyo didn't do something quickly, she may loose her friend.

Chiyo rested Ayumu's head on a pile of bricks to keep her above the water. She took several deep breaths to open her lungs then pinched Ayumu's nose shut. One last deep breath, Chiyo put her lips to the cold lips of her friend. Chiyo pushed the vital oxygen into the lungs of Ayumu. Her chest rose and fell but her lungs did not restart. Another deep breath and more life giving oxygen. Still nothing.

"Please wake up." Chiyo begged, pressing her hands onto Ayumu's chest and pressing down. Another deep breath. Finally, Ayumu's lungs sprung to life, expelling the fluid that had flooded them. Chiyo was thanked for her life saving with a mouthful of water straight from the lungs of her best friend. Ayumu coughed up the water, gasping and sucking in the sweet O2. Chiyo couldn't help but laugh in joy at her friends spluttering.

"Chiyo? What happened? Cough Where are we?" Ayumu asked, her voice croaky, like Chiyo's had been earlier.

"We're still in the basement. There was an explosion and the buildings collapsed on top of us. But we're okay." Chiyo said happily, glad she could say that and know it to be true.

"We have to get out of here" Ayumu said, trying to stand up, but she was held down by Chiyo.

"No. You need to recover first. I think the structure is stable, so we should be safe." Ayumu eased back down.

"What do you think happened to everyone?" Ayumu asked, looking up at the rubble overhead.

"I don't know, Ayumu. We have get up and see. But you make sure you're okay first."

The engineer coughed up some more and rubbed her eyes. She made a fist with her hands and flexed her arms. She moved her toes to make sure she hadn't lost anything when the building collapsed on her. As far as she could tell, everything was still there. She bent her legs and a sudden stab of pain rocked up to her brain from her left knee. She straightened her leg immediately and the pain subsided.

"I thinks something's wrong with my knee" she said, pulling up her pant leg to see the skin underneath. The skin was badly grazed and swelling was clear, but nothing else seemed wrong with it.

"I think it got hit by a brick. I don't think it's broken or anything serious" Chiyo said, examining the injury.

In their small room, the two young women waited. Laying in the water, waiting for Ayumu to rest enough to escape.

"Okay, Chiyo. I think I'm ready now." Ayumu said. Stretching her legs out. There was an audible crack as her knee snapped in place. The click made Chiyo's skin crawl, but Ayumu enjoyed the feeling of it.

"I think if we can grab that bit over there, we can pull ourselves up and then crawl through the gap." Chiyo pointed at the top of the dividing wall and then at the small hole in the rubble. A ray of light shone down through it, clearly visible because of all the dust falling from the collapsed ceiling that still hadn't settled.

Ayumu got to her feet, putting pressure on her injured leg. Pain shot up her, but she over came it, leaning against a wall to ease the pain. Chiyo went first. Jumping up and grabbing the top of the wall, pulling herself up. Trying to grip the wall with her feet, but they slid off the smooth concrete. She pulled her leg up and got it over the top of the wall. The gap was just a few feet above her now, some wooden and metal poles made it easy for to climb the short distance until she reached the escape. As she got close, she could feel the warm air blowing in, over her. It was dry and hot, unlike the cool, humid air in the room. The gap was was only the size of a bowling ball, too small for Chiyo to crawl through. She pushed away some bricks and yanked away a pipe that was cutting across the hole.

Chiyo went through the gap, arms first. Her skin dried instantly as it met the hot dry air. Pushing herself up, her body came up and finally her legs were free. She stood on top of the wreckage that was once Zal's house. Looking around, there was only destruction. All the buildings of the town had been raised to the ground. The building made from an old ship had collapsed, crushing the clay walls. The old hull had buckled under it's own weight, deforming the ship. Behind her lay the cracked water tower that had fallen on them, flooding their hideout.

"Okay, Ayumu. I'm out. Come up the same I did." Chiyo shouted down to her waiting friend.

"Okay" she shouted back, "This is like the time one of the ships at home fell on me. That was a fun day..." Ayumu's voice became quieter as she drifted back to days past.

Chiyo looked around her. There was a wooden beam standing up in the wreckage, it was snapped in half. Chiyo looked closer. The bullets hole that riddled it were clear. She looked at the other wreckage; they all had bullet holes in them. The building had been shot down by a torrent of gunfire Chiyo couldn't begin to imagine. She moved off the collapsed building and towards the town square in search of survivors. The hot sand burnt her shoeless foot.

She couldn't see anyone around. The ground she walked on was covered in fine sand blown in the desert. It was already a foot deep. There were several bumps on the far side of the town, that Chiyo noticed, but didn't take any further action. Ayumu's grunts of exertion reached Chiyo's ears and she turned around to see her friend climbing out of the escape hole. She gave her a lending hand and hoisted her out.

Ayumu looked around at the desolate surroundings. "Where is everyone?" she asked.

"I don't know. We should looked around." Chiyo replied, walking over to one of the other collapsed buildings, Ayumu limping after her.

The two investigated, but found no one. Chiyo walked over to the lumps in the sand and kicked it in frustration. She hit something solid yet soft. Some sand was kicked away, and beneath was a red shirt. Chiyo brushed away the sand and found the body of a man lying on his stomach. She jumped back in horror, landing on her backside. Chiyo crept closer to the body and examined it. A gush of wind blew through the town, bringing with it another wave of sand that added a few millimetres to the mounds that littered the town.

Some of the sand was blown off the corpse Chiyo was investigating. Three large holes were clearly visible on his back. Sand was stuck in the dry blood. Chiyo flipped the body onto it's back. The body was stiff with rigormortis. Under the body was a large puddle of dry blood. Three large chunks of flesh had been blown out of the body by the exiting bullet. Chiyo returned the body to it's original state and went to find Ayumu.

Ayumu had found a mound of her own. Moving the sand out of the way revealed the rough face of Zal. His face was covered in the fine dust that was blowing through the town. Ayumu could also see the single gunshot to his chest. Ayumu made a sad expression like a scolded dog as she looked at the dead Zal.

"Ayumu?" Chiyo said softly, not wanting to scare Ayumu. "Come on, Ayumu. We have to see if anyone is alive." Chiyo gripped her friend's shoulders and tried to drag her away. Ayumu seemed to confused to react, until she suddenly snapped into action.

"We have to find the others!" she shouted, jumping up and taking Chiyo by surprise. Ayumu limped over to the other mounds as fast as she could, Chiyo not far behind. Ayumu began brushing the dust off the bodies and examining them. Moving onto the next once she confirmed that it wasn't one of her comrades.

"They aren't here." Ayumu said. "Where did they go?" she looked up to Chiyo for answers.

"Probably the Tri-Systems place near here. Now come on, Ayumu. We can't stay here." Chiyo pleaded. She didn't want to stay near the corpse filled town.

"No. We have to give them a proper burial." Ayumu said firmly. Chiyo was taken aback by this. Ayumu stood up and limped over to the only standing building in the town. A tool shed. She pulled the door open forcefully and searched through it; emerging a few seconds later with two shovels in hand. She was limping, but still looked like she was on a mission. Her expression was angry and solid. She threw one of the shovels to Chiyo, who managed to catch it.

Ayumu took Chiyo to the outskirts of the town and began digging a human sized hole. Ayumu was putting real effort into it and Chiyo was helping, but was slightly unnerved by Ayumu's strange behaviour. She dug a grave and threw the shovel aside, walking back to the town. Chiyo waited by the two graves they had dug. Ayumu returned a few minutes later, dragging a corpse behind her. She was holding him by the shoulders.

Chiyo was horrified. She had never seen her friend act like this before. Ayumu's expression hadn't changed, it was locked on a mixture of anger and determination that Chiyo had never seen before.

Ayumu dropped the body in the grave and began filling it in. Sweat was already dripping off her face as she heaved the dusty sand into the ditch, slowly covering the body from sight. They continued this for hours. Digging graves and burying the inhabitants of the demolished town, one by one. By the time they were finished, it was dusk.

Chiyo went through the debris to find some burnable wood for a camp fire. Even with all the heavy rains the planet had been experiencing recently, the sun had dried out everything it touched in a matter of hours. She managed to drag together everything she needed to get the fire going, and soon it was burning nicely under the shelter they had made. Some sheets of metal had been erected as walls and another one thrown over the top to make a roof. Chiyo and Ayumu sat there in silence. The engineer kept her eyes on her feet and Chiyo looked out over the desert, to the horizon where the light blue sand met the inky blue of space. Outside town, 12 make-shift crucifixes marked the graves of the dead miners.

Ayumu hadn't said a word for hours, neither had Chiyo. Finally, Chiyo broke the long silence. "Ayumu? Are you okay?" she asked tentatively. Ayumu snapped a glare at Chiyo, who held the gaze.

Ayumu's glare began to crack, her lips quivering and her eyebrows twitching from angry to sad. Her tough exterior finally broke and a torrent of tears. Chiyo moved over and held her friend as she continued to cry. Chiyo tapped Ayumu's back and told her everything would be okay as she cried into Chiyo's shoulder.

"I just want things to go back to how they were" Ayumu sobbed.

"I know" Chiyo comforted, "But they can't. So we'll just have to do what we can to get through."

"How are we gonna get out of here. I can't fly the ship and even if we did; we're wanted by the Feds so how far could we get?!" Ayumu cried. This was by far the largest outburst of emotion Chiyo had ever witnessed in her friend. The normally joyful and serene girl was having a breakdown and Chiyo was powerless to help anymore than offering what little support she could.


End file.
